Category: Palestinian politics

The botched military operation in the Palestinian village of Assira Shamali near Nablus should never have happened. Neither should the killing a week earlier of the mukhtar of the village of Surda, near Ramallah. In both incidents Israel got a public relations blow, and in neither incident did it achieve its objectives. In Assira Israel…

The grand mufti of Jerusalem didn’t have to reissue his fatwa (decree) to Palestinians living in Jerusalem not to accept Israeli citizenship, which he said, would ‘legitimize the Israeli occupation.’ Although the Israeli media has been exaggerating the fact that Palestinians are lining up asking for Israeli passports, the truth is far from that. If…

I have a confession to make. For some time I have watched and admired the rise of the Sephardic Jewish party Shas. I have been a fan of former Shas leader Aryeh Deri ever since reading a long interview with him following his visit with spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to Egypt. In that interview…

No sooner had the Camp David talks broken up, than the finger pointing began. President Bill Clinton tried to be diplomatic by consciously praising Ehud Barak. The Israelis were more direct in putting the blame of the failure of the talks on the Palestinians. The Americans and Israelis tried to blame the Palestinians for the…

If you have still not made up your mind where to spend your vacation this summer, here is an innovative suggestion: Gaza. All you have to do is hold your nose (both literally and figuratively) as you cross the Erez checkpoint, connecting Gaza with most of the outside world, and within minutes you can be…

For more than a year, my brother Jonathan and I have had a running disagreement over the viability of declaring a Palestinian state. He has repeatedly rejected the importance of declaring a Palestinian state under the current circumstances. “A Palestinian state is an Israeli goal these days,” he would say to me and to anyone…

In the midst of hard negotiations about peace in the Middle East, an important factor is often ignored. The human factor. For example, take the issue of Jerusalem. Negotiators are debating a host of creative ideas on the future of Jerusalem to bridge the gap between Palestinians and Israelis, but little attention is being given…

Newsprint and airwaves are filled with suggestions that the two issues that might make or break the Camp David summit are Jerusalem and the refugees. While President Arafat is sure to defend the Palestinian position that Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state, I do not believe that he will be able to sign…

The coming three months will witness a major push in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. A moment will come when the leaders of Israel and Palestine will have to choose peace or the continuation of the conflict. This could happen in a Camp David-like summit or a draft peace agreement most like to be presented to both…

With all its problems, the city of Jerusalem has a special charm about it. You feel it when walking into the Old City through the Damascus Gate or when you sit in a restaurant like the Pasha in Sheikh Jarrah. This charm, however, is being distorted by the fact that one set of people, the…