Tag: Palestine

Admist the talk of whether the Palestinians will ever recognise Israel, we should also ask whether Israel will ever recognise the Palestinians.

Doesn't look like it.

If you sign this petition and it gets to 25,000 signatures, Avaaz.Org will run advertisements in major Israeli and Pali papers with list of all the names and the following message:

To Israeli, Palestinian & international leaders:

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is at the heart of a global clash threatening to divide us all. People from every corner of the world want a just and lasting peace in the Middle East - and the international community can and must help bring all sides to the table. Start Real Middle East Talks Now, and remain at the negotiating table until we have peace. 

So far, 3000 people have signed. 22,000 more to go.

When you sign it, mention eteraz.org in the personalized message box. 

I'm almost back. Hopefully I'll really be back on Monday. In the meantime, we should all be paying attention to the Saudi-sponsored Mecca talks between Fatah, Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The agreement to form a unity government which the factions signed on Thursday could, if properly implemented, be a significant step forward for a people increasingly divided by sectarian infighting. The cynics will call it another piece of paper, but the swiftness with which the agreement was reached, along with the unusually pro-active role of the Saudi government in fostering it, suggests to me that this thing has legs. 

Let us hope it does, and that it will become tangible proof to the too-long stifled people of the Territories that diplomacy can translate into positive real-world action. Proving this will be key to putting a stopper in the civilian-on-civilian violence that plagues the region. 

Liked this reader diary enough to suggest you give it a good run-through. Notice how poorly Amazon.com treats Jimmy Carter's work, while lavishing praise on From Time Immemorial, a terrible fraud which has been ably undermined by, among others, Finkelstein's Beyond Chutzpah.

Chutzpah, indeed.

What hope for sanity and democracy when Jimmy Carter is treated this way? There is a petition circulating, demanding Amazon.com take action. Sign here.

What is the leader of Hamas saying?

Hamas: 'Israel Is Reality'
Updated: 16:19, Wednesday January 10, 2007

Hamas acknowledges the existence of Israel is an established fact, the movement's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal has said.

This is a softening of the militant group's previous refusal to recognise the Jewish state.

Israel is a "reality" and "there will remain a state called Israel, this is a matter of fact," Meshaal said in an interview with Reuters new agency.

The problem was not Israel's existence but the failure to establish a state for Palestinians, said Meshaal, whose party leads the Palestinian government.

Formal recognition of the Jewish state could only be considered by Hamas once such a Palestinian state is established, said Meshaal.

"This is the closest Meshaal has gone to a de facto recognition of Israel which he usually refers to as the 'Zionist entity'," Sky News' Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall said.

"Reports translating from his Arabic suggest he said the problem was not Israel's existence. If that is the case then this is a significant step forward."

Meshaal's comments came a day after Palestinian militants claimed an Israeli soldier they have been holding is in good health - but they added that they are prepared to keep him indefinitely.

The capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid last summer sparked Israel's major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Militants are demanding the release of 1,000 prisoners being held in Israel in return for the soldier.

Meanwhile, media doesn't pick it up; nor does the right; nor the Israeli hawks.

Why would they? War is lucrative.

It is a first step. It is a natural progression from democratization.

Yet another thing about the world the conservatives got wrong. 

Daily Kos has more; as does The Arabist, in much more detail.

The music playing at Visual Dhkir's website reminded me of Muslimgauze.

The man behind Muslimgauze was Bryn Jones, whose work was heavily (if not exclusively) inspired by the struggles in the Middle East.

I don't know about his confessional state (I don't think he was a Muslim), but he was what you might call a "political Muslim". He identified very closely with the Palestinian cause and was a supporter of the PLO and Hezbollah.

First, respected scholars Mearsheimer and Walt were tarred as raving conspiracy theorists for acknowledging the impact of that 800 pound gorilla--the Israeli Lobby spearheaded by AIPAC--on Washington Mideast policy and debate.Now, President Jimmy Carter is being called an anti-Semite for talking honestly about how Israel's treatment of Palestinians looks to its critics. His cardinal sin?  Using the A-word, even though by any objective standard the comparison is fair game.