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Shooting of Fatah activist could doom security cooperation
By Daoud Kuttab The Feb. 24 shooting death of 19-year-old Palestinian Jihad al-Jaafari by Israeli troops may have killed the last remaining working feature of the Oslo Accord — the 21-year-old agreement for security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his security forces have been stubbornly resisting calls to end security coordination, which…
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When Palestine Becomes an Issue in Philadelphia Politics
By Daoud Kuttab When council woman Maria D. Quinones Sanchez from the city of Philadelphia walked into the Mas Islamic Center January 30th to meet with members of her constituency, she had no idea that she will find herself embroiled with the same kind of political controversy that is shaking up US-Israeli relations. At the…
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Ministry strike leaves East Jerusalemites in limbo
By Daoud Kuttab Yasmine was born in July 2014 at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center. Six months later, she has yet to get a birth certificate from the Israeli authorities. While her mother Tamara was born and has lived all her life in East Jerusalem, young Yasmine’s sin is that her father hails from the nearby West…
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Unity Is Needed as Palestinians Wait
By Daoud Kuttab As the Palestinian-Israeli conflict awaits Israeli elections, a number of important local and international developments are taking place that could have a long-reach effect on it. Israeli elections, set for March 17, have all but frozen all efforts to move the stalled peace process. U.S. officials, as well as their European counterparts,…
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Odeh: racist Israeli laws to benefit joint Arab list
By Daoud Kuttab The Arab-Jewish party Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) has been a small but permanent fixture in the Israeli parliament for years. It usually won four or five of the 120 Knesset seats in elections, providing a fig leaf to Israeli democratic claims without being able to influence either internal or external policies….
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Palestinians rush to condemn murder of Jordanian pilot
By Daoud Kuttab When the video of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh was circulated Feb. 3, Jordan TV cut its regular broadcast to update Jordanians and provide some comfort to a grieving nation. The first interview conducted by a military official after the announcement of the news was with the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque,…
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Former Knesset speaker declares Zionism over
By Daoud Kuttab When Avraham Burg, former Knesset speaker and head of the Jewish Agency, attended a meeting of the socialist-inclined Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), he caught many people off guard. But the former Labor Party leader feels that anyone following his work should not be surprised. “I left Zionism a…
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‘Palestine’ Is Becoming a Bad Word in Washington
By Daoud Kuttab The U.S. response to the efforts by Palestinian president to join international organizations, including the International Criminal Court (ICC), is puzzling. The spokeswoman of the U.S. State Department made an unusual attack in trying to express Washington’s opposition. “The United States does not believe Palestine is a sovereign state and, therefore, does…
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How to Win the Ideological Battle Against Extremism
By Daoud Kuttab I am quite certain that the military war on DAESH (ISIS) will be largely won in 2015. The anger that has engulfed Jordan after learning of the heinous crime against the pilot Muath Kassasbeh will certainly help ensure that this war is won militarily. This is the second time in six months…
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Fatah power struggle leads to missing paychecks in Gaza
By Daoud Kuttab Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was haunted last week by the Arabic saying “cutting livelihood is worse than cutting necks.†Abbas had stopped payment on the salaries of more than 200 security officers suspected of being loyal to renegade Fatah leaderMohammed Dahlan. When the Palestinian government transferred 60% of December salaries on Jan. 20, 220 Gaza-based security…