Despite its success of rebelling Israeli military advances in Gaza, Hamas’s regional political maneuvers of recent years are not bearing fruits. Jointly isolated by Israel and other Arab parties, unaided by the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Mahmoud Abbas, the Islamic...
Dear Syria: From One Refugee to Another
Whenever the word "refugee" is uttered, I think of my mother. When Zionist militias began their systematic onslaught and "cleansing" of the Palestinian Arab population of historic Palestine in 1948, she, along with her family, ran away from the...
Lessons That Hollande Failed To Learn From G.W. Bush’s Plunders
Francois Hollande is not a popular president. No matter how hard the "socialist" leader tries to impress, there never seems to be a no solid constituency that backs him. He attempted to mask his initial lack of experience in foreign affairs with a war in...
‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’: Things I Learned Writing about the Middle East
Writing about and reporting the Middle East is not an easy task, especially during these years of turmoil and upheaval. While physical maps remain largely intact, the geopolitical map of the region is in constant influx. Following and reporting about these constant...
Whitewashing CIA Torture: ‘We Are [Not So] Awesome’ After All
"This is not who we are. This is not how we operate," were the words of President Barack Obama commenting on the grisly findings of a long-awaited congressional report on the use of torture by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). But what if this is...
Nothing About Us Without Us: The Token Palestinian and Authentic Narrative
I recall, with particular awkwardness, my first talk at a socialist student gathering at the University of Washington in Seattle nearly two decades ago. When I tried to offer an authentic view of the situation in Palestine from the viewpoint of a refugee, my hosts...
Losing the Plot: Israel’s Premier To Face New Gaza Reality
Netanyahu’s war-turned-genocide in Gaza has backfired badly –his strategy has helped resurrect Hamas, the very movement he tried desperately to crushAside from being a major military setback, Israel’s war on Gaza has also disoriented the policies of Prime Minister...
Ravaging Gaza: The War Netanyahu Cannot Possibly Win
When the bodies of three Israeli settlers – Aftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19 – were found on June 30 near Hebron in the southern West Bank, Israel went into a state of mourning and a wave of sympathy flowed in from around the world. The...
What Palestinian Unity Is All About – The Real Task Ahead
Palestinians are yet to achieve national unity despite the elation over the ‘national unity government’ now in operation in Ramallah. One has to be clear in the distinction between a Hamas-Fatah political arrangement necessitated by regional and international...
Al-Aqsa vs. Israel: The Lurking Danger Beneath
Something sinister is brewing around and below al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, and it has the hallmark of a familiar Israeli campaign to strip the Mosque of its Muslim Arab identity. This time around, however, the stakes are much higher. The status of...


