February 2008

By Marco Rosaire Rossi

Throughout the conflict in the Middle East, the United States and Israel have engaged the Palestinians in a cycle of meaningless negotiations and harsh repression. In late 1988, when it became impossible for the US to ignore the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s peace plan, the US agreed to organize negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Shortly after the negotiations, Israel increased pressure on the occupied territories. At the time, Israel Defense Minister Yizhak Rabin proudly proclaimed that “the inhabitants of the territories are subject to harsh . . .

August 2007

by Molly Gibbs

Local Peace activists express concern for Palestinians under Israeli Occupation

June was a horrific month for people enduring the Israeli Occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. The right-wing Likud Party and the Israeli government has taken advantage of the split between Hamas and Fatah, as civil war erupts with Fatah in control of the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza. Many fear the vengeful attacks on Gaza's citizens may destroy their society, and any possibility of peaceful coexistence for and among Palestinians.

Olympians for Peace in the Middle East -- June, 1967 Teach-in

January 2007

[In our December issue, Works In Progress published an article by Norman Finkelstein in which he challenged Human Rights Watch for the statement addressed in this press release from HRW.]

Human Rights Watch press release, December 16, 2006

We regret that our press release, "OPT: Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks," gave many readers the impression that we were criticizing civilians for engaging in nonviolent resistance. This was not our intention. It is not the policy of the organization to criticize non-violent resistance or any other form of peaceful protest, . . .

December 2006

by Norman G. Finkelstein

Even by the grim standards of Gaza, the past five months have been cruel ones.

Some four hundred Palestinians, mostly unarmed civilians, have been killed during Israeli attacks. (Four Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed.) Israel has sealed off Gaza from the outside world while the international community has imposed brutal sanctions, ravaging Gaza's already impoverished economy.

December 2006

by Stephen Zunes

The election of a Democratic majority in the House and Senate is unlikely to result in any serious challenge to the Bush administration's support for Israeli attacks against the civilian populations of its Arab neighbors and the Israeli government's ongoing violations of international humanitarian law.

November 2006

by Jonathan Cook

A mistake too often made by those examining Israel's behavior in the Occupied Territories -- or when analyzing its treatment of Arabs in general, or interpreting its view of Iran -- is to assume that Israel is acting in good faith. Even its most trenchant critics can fall into this trap.

October 2006

by Marco Rosaire Rossi

In the "official" report, the account reported by the major media outlets in the United States and other Western nations, the timeline for the conflicts between Israel and Hizbullah begins with the capture of two Israeli soldiers on June 25. This perspective is widespread; even mainstream human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch perpetuate the idea by referring to Israel actions against Lebanon as retaliatory. However, the idea that the June 25 kidnapping started the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah is false. Israel did not . . .

September 2006

by Todd Chretien

On August 12, 2006, some 25,000 people in San Francisco, Washington, DC, Los Angeles and other cities took part in protests against the Israeli/American war in the Middle East. Probably around fifty per cent of the marchers were Arab or Muslim. These protests showed the Arab world, and specifically our brothers and sisters in Lebanon and Gaza, that there is opposition to the US government's policies. That's a good start. But you have to ask the question: Why after a month of war did so few people come out to protest? Where were the "anti-war" Democratic leaders? Where were the . . .

August 2006

by Jonathan Cook

This week I had the pleasure to appear on American radio, on the Laura Ingraham show, pitted against David Horowitz, a "Semite supremacist" who most recently made his name under the banner of Campus Watch, leading McCarthyite witch-hunts against American professors who have the impertinence to suggest that maybe, just maybe, Arabs have minds and feelings like the rest of us.

August 2006

by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

On July 16, CBS Face the Nation host (and CBS Evening News anchor) Bob Schieffer dedicated the entire Sunday morning news show to the Middle East conflict. In his closing editorial, he adapted a well-known fable in an attempt to explain the causes of the current conflict -- or rather, the lack of causes:

May 2006

by Norman Solomon

Weeks after a British magazine published a long article by two American professors titled "The Israel Lobby," the outrage continued to howl through mainstream U.S. media.

A Los Angeles Times op-ed article by Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Max Boot helped to set a common tone. He condemned a working paper by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt that was excerpted last month in the London Review of Books.

September 2005

International Solidarity Movement

Palestine

August 19, 2005

With the deluge of coverage about Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza, it's easy to be lulled into the idea that the "road map" to peace in the region is moving ahead and that the occupation is nearing some sort of conclusion. It's important to keep in mind the information offered in this fact sheet.

June 2005

by Alexander Cockburn

Whatever sour emotions I entertained while reading accounts of the funeral of Marla Ruzicka had nothing really to do with the death on April 16 of a brave young woman in Baghdad. On many accounts, and I have had a detailed conversation with a close friend of Marla's whose judgment I respect, she was an idealistic person whose prime political flaw seems to have been the very forgivable one of naivety.