Russia pledges to back Palestinian bid for state recognition

A top Hamas official said Monday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has pledged Moscow’s support if the Palestinians seek recognition as a United Nations member-state in September. “All peoples need unity, not least the Palestinian people, who are justly seeking a solution to their task of creating a state,” Lavrov said. Israel and the […]

American Foreign Policy Folly

The U.S. keeps Mubarak in power—it gave his regime $1.5 billion in aid last year—mainly because he supports America’s pro-Israel policies, especially by helping Israel maintain its stranglehold on Gaza. [Israel and Egypt alone receive 1/3 of America's total American foreign aid!] The U.S. supports Mahmoud Abbas for the same reason: he is seen as […]

The Palestine Papers and the Dream of Statehood

The Palestine Papers are the largest leak of confidential files in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a cache of more than 1,600 documents encompassing the most recent decade of negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, The Palestine Papers make it clear that part of the Palestinian Authority — […]

The Revealing Palestine Papers

The Palestine Papers give the world an unprecedented look inside the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, as well as provide a fly-on-the-wall view of how key senior American officials never take any position to which an Israeli government might object. The series of six documents show just how willing the U.S. is to acquiesce to Israeli demands […]

The ambiguous Israeli connection to Islamist extremism

Curiously, Israel has played a key role in Islamist extremism. This dates back to when Congressman Charlie Wilson used his position in the House Select Committee on Intelligence, with the support of then-Senator Dick Cheney, to ramp up billions of dollars’ worth of support for both Israel and the Afghan mujahidin. Gust Avracotos, the CIA’s […]

PLO Leadership Blackmailed By Israel?

Two months ago, many western commentators were jubilant that Mahmoud Abbas, the U.S.-supported head of both the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA), was making a comeback. But a series of events in recent weeks has sent Abbas’s level of support from his people into a nosedive. The most serious has been the […]

Israel overturns the damning report of Judge Richard Goldstone

Israel celebrated its success at the United Nations in forcing the Palestinians to defer demands that the International Criminal Court investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Israel during its winter assault on the Gaza Strip. The about-turn, following vigorous lobbying from Israel and the United States, appears to have buried the damning report of […]