Victory for Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian presidential elections will pose a huge challenge to the Palestinian leadership.

By being voted chairman of the PLO executive committee hours after Yasser Arafat’s death, Abbas clinched the support of the organization that represents all Palestinians, including the diaspora. Continue Reading »

After years of gloom, Palestine woke up this week to a celebration never before witnessed. Huge signs of leading candidates to presidency have replaced posters of martyrs and Intifada graffiti. Local newspapers are also full of advertisements with headlines like: “Ending the occupation”, “Security for the citizen”, “Reform and development” (Mahmoud Abbas). Or Tayseer Khaled’s — the candidate for change — “No peace without Jerusalem which is the jewel of the nation and the root of our existence”. The candidate of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine even advertises his e-mail and website: www.vote-tayseer.com. Continue Reading »

Midway through an exclusive interview I had with Yasser Arafat in Tunis shortly before his return to Palestine, a year or so after the signing of the Oslo accords, I asked him to comment on some of the PLO factions wanting to become a political party. Continue Reading »

Everyone in the Middle East is crossing their fingers these days, hoping that regional and international leaders will not blow yet another opportunity for Arab-Israeli peace. The role of Palestinian and Israeli leaders is clearly an important factor in moving the peace process ahead, but let there be no mistake about it: The crucial factor is 6,000 miles away from Jerusalem, in Washington. Continue Reading »

This is the BBC from London, Voice of America from Washington, Deutsche Welle from Germany, Monte Carlo Radio from France. According to Reuters, AP wire service, UPI news. This is CNN. You are watching the Disney Channel, Hollywood channel, History Channel. Tonight’s feature is The Terminator. Follow the latest episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, Dallas, Friends, The Practice, NYPD Blue, Law and Order. Continue Reading »

Television has been both a blessing and a curse for Palestinians. During the first Intifada, one can argue that it was a blessing. It raised the profile of a people refusing to accept living indefinitely under occupation.

This Palestinian popular resistance was beamed all over the world and won sympathy and support from people. What was projected then was the image of a people wishing to be free and willing to protest military occupation without using arms. Many credit the success at Oslo and the historic agreement signed at the White House to the popular nature of the Intifada and the enormous television coverage it attracted. Continue Reading »

We all prefer shortcuts. None of us likes to do things that require time and patience. Whether it is a visit to the dentist or world peace, shortcuts might be desirable, but they rarely produce the required results.

I thought of this yesterday as I was having a pleasant breakfast at the Amman Intercontinental. The discussion was with Eason Jordan, the head of the news department at CNN, and the topic was Palestine and independent media in the Arab world. Eason Jordan, along with many CNN staff members from the region and the world are in Jordan for the wedding of former CNN reporter Rym Brahimi to HRH Prince Ali. Continue Reading »

The past few weeks have shown that Palestinian president Yaser Arafat can’t be put into a predictable box. Just when it was thought that Arafat was on the ropes and going down, he emerged stronger than before. And just when people thought that the up and coming Mohammad Dahlan was down and out (some even predicted that he would be killed if he stepped foot in Ramallah’s Muqata’a) he gets invited to a one on one meeting with Arafat. The first meeting has been followed by a second meeting on Wednesday and the rumor now is that he is being considered again for the position of interior minister within the reform cabinet that Arafat and Abu Ala’a are under pressure to deliver. Continue Reading »

The hunger strike initiated by thousands of Palestinian prisoners on Aug. 15 is a powerful non-violent act. While no one expects Israeli officials to welcome this act of protest, the utterances of senior Israeli officials wishing the Palestinian prisoners to starve to death and stating that they will refrain from providing hospitalization to the prisoners whose health is deteriorating is sickening. Continue Reading »

No one is indifferent to Al Jazeera, the Qatari-based Arab satellite television station. You can sense the blood of U.S. officials boil when they discuss it. To be sure, in the context of the dream of all Arabs being united and independent of foreign control, Al Jazeera is undeniably partial to Arab aspirations. But that does not make its news reporting untruthful. Continue Reading »