Palestine, media, Jordan, community radio, online journalism
Following appeared in Jordan Times By Daoud Kuttab “The people have spoken, the voters have decided and I bow to the will of citizens and accept the election result.” This sentence or a variation of it is often spoken to the press by candidates who lose elections, often after having made a congratulatory phone call…
Following appeared in Jordan times. By Daoud Kuttab Even before a single vote was counted and results announced, it was clear who were the main winners and losers. And for the most part, they were not the candidates. The biggest winner in the Jordanian legislative elections was the state. It bargained on the public and…
By Daoud Kuttab The ambiguous results of the Israeli elections have left Palestinians with an attitude best embodied by the novel of the late Palestinian novelist Emile Habibi, a pessoptimist. Palestinians were dumbfounded by the unanticipated and unclear results, which have left them torn between feelings of optimism and pessimism. There were plenty of reasons to…
By Daoud Kuttab Despite claims to the contrary, the Palestinian reconciliation effort appears to have hit a snag of some sort. Publicly, both Fatah and Hamas leaders are insisting that the musalaha is going ahead and that a unified, agreed-to government will be declared by the end of the month. Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk…
By Daoud Kuttab During the past few decades, one can easily and accurately trace times in which world powers (especially the US) were able to influence a political process. At least two Israeli elections come to mind: the victory of Labor’s Yitshaq Rabin replacing Yitshaq Shamir in the early 1990s and not long after…
Daoud Kuttab When the leaders of the two conflicting Palestinian organizations meet in Cairo, they will have a long, hard set of problems to resolve. Some of these problems continue to exist between the two leaders, but the bigger problems exist between the leaders and their own radicals. This latter problem is more acute with Hamas…
By Daoud Kuttab Whenever I travel from Jordan to the state of Palestine, I have to use three different cell-phone devices, each with a different SIM card. I need to keep my regular Zain Jordanian cell and therefore I put it on phone roaming. But in Palestine I need to use two other cell phones.  Jawwal,…
By Daoud Kuttab Despite the positive tone of the Abbas-Meshaal meetings in Cairo, it is safe to say that the long-awaited breakthrough in the Hamas-Fatah talks has not yet materialized. Maybe the best evidence for that failure lies in the fact that the two Palestinian leaders were not invited by the Egyptian president for a tripartite meeting….
By Daoud Kuttab For a long time, Palestinians followed the Israeli elections very closely. They were aware of who was up, who was down, the platforms of every party in Israel and how each’s victory or loss could affect the coalition and the peace process. Today in Palestine, there is no such interest — and it is not…
By Daoud Kuttab While so-called leaders of the Palestinian resistance from Fatah and Hamas were traveling to Egypt to hold talks in five star hotels, another group of Palestinians were actually doing work worthy of the words “liberation and resistance.” In an organized and disciplined manner, nearly 150 Palestinian youths along with some international solidarity supporters…