Thanks to Hamas
Daoud Kuttab The Palestinian legislative elections will probably take place on Jan. 25, thanks in no small a degree to Hamas. For some time it looked like Israeli hesitation regarding the participation of East Jerusalem residents in the elections would be the kind of excuse that many in the ruling Fateh movement were looking for […]
Non violence in Palestine
December 28 & 29, 2005 I was invited to participate and give a workshop in a conference on nonviolence held in Bethlehem. The conference entitled Celebrating Non violence was organized by the Washington based Nonviolence international and the Bethlehem-based Holy Land Trust. The two organizations are run by people that I respect a lot. The […]
Breaking travel records
December 27, 2005 My trip from Amman to Ramallah this week was quite unusual. I succeeded in making the door to door trip in less than three hours. The taxi, driven by the veteran Haj Abdel Salam (who has been on the Amman-Bridge route for 38 years) picked me up from my Rabiah home shortly […]
The US congress message push Palestinians back to the military track
Integrating Hamas into the political mainstream will contribute in deescalating the cycle of violence By: Daoud Kuttab* Ramallah – On the surface of it, the resolution of the US congress and the statements of Javier Solana of the EU threatening to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if it allows the Islamic […]
Taking charge of things
Daoud Kuttab Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is not in a comfortable position these days. He seems like a nice, fatherly figure in not so nice a neighbourhood. He heads a party (or a movement) which has last held a congress of its activists more than 15 years ago. He is caught between old leaders, most […]
Courage in their reporting
Courage In Their Coverage By David Ignatius Wednesday, December 7, 2005; A25 DUBAI — Talking with brave Arab journalists such as Hussein Shobokshi, I hear the passion that animates good reporting everywhere. And it makes me all the more disgusted by recent revelations that my own government has been corrupting the nascent Iraqi free press […]
Dubai 2005 the meeting place
December 2-6, 2005 I was invited to two back to back media-related conferences in Dubai . The Aspen Institute’s US-Arab media round table was first and the second was the Arab Thought Forum’s huge media conference titled: Arab and World Media: Getting Right. Although I had visited Dubai on three other occasions, this […]
The shape of Palestinians’ leadership
Daoud Kuttab What has been expected for some time has finally materialized. The leading Palestinian national movement, Fatah, is coming of age as a political party rather than a national movement. The on-again, off-again Fatah primaries have revealed the movement’s chaos in the aftermath both of the loss of its historic leader and the long-overdue […]
After the Amman Bombings
By Daoud Kuttab Contrary to impulsive thinking, the real challenge to Jordan following the triple hotel bombing is not a security one. Blessed with a strong internal security apparatus, and a relatively homogeneous population, Jordan’s King Abdullah II has few strategic security issues to worry about. His real challenge is a socioeconomic one.
Does Public Opinion Count in the Middle East?
Daoud Kuttab     Al-Hayat     – 21/11/05// The Palestinian Israeli conflict is very strange. It has lasted so long that public opinion has lost its power to affect policy or leaders’ decision making. No matter what the Palestinian or Israeli public wants, what happens on the ground and in decision making circles in Tel Aviv and Ramallah rarely reflects […]