Category: Palestinian politics

Mahmoud Abbas is in a bind. Faced with a seemingly insurmountable impasse to negotiations with Israel, the Palestinian Authority president can either resign from his PLO chairmanship or come up with some serious, unilateral action to break the deadlock. With hopes that Barack Obama would stand up to the right-wing Israeli leadership dashed, an unwillingness…

By Daoud Kuttab In the midst of discussions regarding possible scenarios following Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision not to run for president, few have paid attention to the larger picture. Abbas’ refusal to run for a second term as president of the Palestinian Authority signals a clear end of the Oslo phase in which he,…

Conflicting, wavering positions that do not help peace By Daoud Kuttab As first lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton was the darling of Palestinians and Arabs when late in Bill Clinton’s term she uttered the hot button word: Palestine. Since then, she has been swinging depending on the political winds. As a senator for…

By Daoud Kuttab The decree issued by Mahmoud Abbass, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has pushed the conflict between PLO’s main faction, Fateh, and the Islamic Hamas movement to yet another stage. While many consider this move very risky for the future of Palestine, others feel that it is the only democratic way out…

By Daoud Kuttab The social and economic life in Jerusalem and the West Bank appears to be on a positive upwards trend. Salam Fayyad’s government has been successful (with the help of donors) in providing economic growth; people are working, shops are stocked restaurants and cafés are full of paying customers. An improved security situation…

The angry political and public reaction to the decision by the Palestinian leadership to postpone discussions of the Goldstone war crimes report requires a sober look at the reasons and lessons that need to be learned to avoid repetition. Anger came from Palestinians and non-Palestinians alike, including many supporters of Palestine. Arab media, especially Al…

The following appeared in the New York Times Magazine October 4, 2009 Can the Muppets Make Friends in Ramallah? By SAMANTHA M. SHAPIRO This season’s episodes of “Shara’a Simsim,” the Palestinian version of the global “Sesame Street” franchise, were filmed in a satellite campus of Al-Quds University, a ramshackle four-story concrete structure that houses the…

By Daoud Kuttab One of the most frustrating things about the American policy towards the Middle East is how Israel seems to always be able to get away with it or at least treated symmetrically with the Palestinians, whether there is cause for such symmetry or not. This false symmetry was crystal clear last week…

The summit meeting between President Obama with Palestinian and Israeli leaders in New York yesterday might have been necessary. But for serious negotiations to resolve the decades long Middle East conflict a much more robust US involvment is needed. Washington can’t be neutral anymore and must announce which party is holding up progress.

by Daoud Kuttab This cycle has become so bizarre and confusing that Palestinians are not sure whether they should hope for continued tensions with Israel (which usually means no new settlements) or for continued negotiations (which usually provide cover for building settlements) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to approve new Jewish settlements on the…