Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Daud Abdullah
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Why is Abbas refusing to sign the Rome Statute?
This is the question that is etched on everyone’s mind. If there is only one issue that Palestinians agree upon today it is the need for President Mahmoud Abbas to sign the Rome Statute. That would clear the way to file charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli…
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The days of open-ended Palestinian concessions are over
Even after its collapse, the Cairo negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians were, perhaps, the most important in many years. For the first time ever, Palestine Liberation Organisation/Palestinian Authority negotiators were joined at the table by representatives of the armed resistance movements, notably Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Thanks to the…
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Livni exposes Egyptian-Israeli collaboration… again
Tzipi Livni may no longer be Israel’s foreign minister but she still has a capacity to cause diplomatic tremors. Last weekend she did just this by declaring that there was an agreement between Israel and Egypt to strangle Hamas. Since there was no official affirmation or denial from Cairo, despite…
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Gaza between Latin American solidarity and Arab deceit
After almost one month of unspeakable Israeli savagery, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has finally decided to break his silence on Gaza. While some may say it is better late than never, others insist that it’s too little too late. Whichever way it is viewed, the grudging official Arab response to…
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Netanyahu needs a lifeline
If war is a continuation of politics by other means, Israel’s aggression on the Gaza Strip has been a political disaster. Apart from its mass killing of civilians and destruction of homes, the Israeli army has accomplished nothing to write home about. On the contrary, it has suffered heavy losses,…
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The Arab Zionists and Gaza
Bad faith and defeat have underlined their record in Palestine. Israel’s vainglorious Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes them as his friends. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians denounce them as yesterday’s men who wish to be relevant today. With every victory scored by the resistance it has become ever clearer that…
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Abbas has lost his people’s trust and seems more irrelevant than ever
After his pathetic remarks concerning the Gaza Strip, it’s hard to see how Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas could ever regain the confidence and trust of his countrymen. His admission of failure to do anything for the people of Gaza and claim that they are just fuel for the “merchants…
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Why Al-Sisi should not be appeased
Western appeasement of Egypt’s former army chief is as reckless as it can get. European leaders should know from their own history that appeasement only whets the appetite of despots, wherever they may be. In the case of Egypt’s Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi, he did not relent after he got away…
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Contentious article could lead to yet another tragedy for the Palestinians
The Palestinians have learnt from experience to be wary of political initiatives “Made in London”. They have witnessed how projects from the Balfour Declaration to the Oslo Accords were incubated in Britain’s capital and have had devastating consequences. Hence their alarm was perfectly justified after the publication of an article…
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Hamas and Fatah still have a mountain to climb
Even in the best of times it would take much more than good intentions and hope to make the unity arrangement between Fatah and Hamas work. Both parties have managed, thus far, to avoid the external meddling and pressures that have derailed previous agreements. Their ability to continue doing so…
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Make or break time for President Abbas
On the eve of the swearing-in of his new government, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seems headed for the biggest test of his political career. Not only has the Israeli government barred ministers from the Gaza Strip from travelling to the West Bank for the occasion, but it has also launched…
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The Crisis of Zionism
It has been often said that the conflict in Palestine cannot be resolved without a fundamental change of policy in Washington. There is some truth in this. No other country has given such unlimited and unquestioning support to the State of Israel as the US. Peter Beinart makes an impassioned…
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European fine of Turkey over Cyprus unlikely to make much difference
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to impose a compensation fine of €90m on Turkey for its 1974 “invasion and occupation” of Cyprus is unprecedented. Experts believe that it could pave the way for similar punitive measures against Russia for its involvement in Crimea. That being…
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An investigation into the transformation of Jerusalem after 1967
Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem has for all intents and purposes strangled its Arab population. The restrictive policies enforced in; construction, planning, land appropriation, investment in infrastructure and services are all geared to force the flight of Palestinians and realize the Judaisation of the city. Consequently, every aspect of Palestinian life…
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Europe’s role in strengthening and protecting Universal Justice
The International Criminal Court (ICC) The last decade has seen some major welcome developments by the international community to promote universal justice and human rights. This is manifest, for instance, in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague following the 1998 Rome Statute. The ICC was…
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America is torn between its own interests and Israeli demands
Like previous agreements, the Palestinian reconciliation deal has been described as “historic”. Officially, the damaging political split between Palestinians is over, but will this latest agreement be any better than the Cairo (2011) and Doha (2012) accords? The signatories, Fatah and Hamas, are committed in principle and in writing, to…
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The EU and Middle East democracy
Is there any difference between the forthcoming presidential elections in Egypt and Syria? The Europe Union apparently believes that there is. While the EU has dismissed the Syrian process as a “parody of democracy”, the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, conveyed an entirely different outlook on the…
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Egypt’s kangaroo court death sentences are truly grotesque
It was not just the numbers that shocked the world but the manner in which it was done, when Judge Saeed Yusuf Al-Jazzar took just two sittings to sentence 529 Egyptians to death. Those convicted were accused of participating in a demonstration in Al-Minya province in August 2013, which led…
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Egyptian regime surrenders last semblance of independent thought
Since the July 2013 coup Egypt’s judiciary has undergone a complete transformation. Once renowned as a pillar of justice, it has become a rubber stamp used by the military junta to settle political scores with the Muslim Brotherhood. The decline reached its nadir this week when a Cairo court began…
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Settlements give the game away; Israel wants all of the West Bank
Soon after the signing of the Wye River Agreement in 1998 Israel’s minister of infrastructure in the first Netanyahu government, the late, unlamented Ariel Sharon, urged settlers to “seize the hilltops”. What followed was an explosion of Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank. Sixteen years on, as US Secretary…
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As the military feathers its own nest, democracy can wait
The charges against deposed President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood co-defendants are a sad reminder of all that has gone wrong in Egypt since July last year. Those indicted include dead and imprisoned Palestinians who are, nevertheless, still accused of taking part in an operation to free Morsi from…
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Israel’s brinkmanship over Gaza
There is nothing imaginary about Israel’s threat to attack Gaza. It is real; both the Hamas-led administration and civilian population in the enclave have had to live with it increasingly since 2007. Although the sabre-rattling from Israeli leaders is indeed menacing, developments on the political front seem no less ominous.…
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More of the same as Israel bites the hand that feeds it
Has the Israeli government crossed a red line in its dealings with the US? It is a reasonable assumption after Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s recent derisory comments about Secretary of State John Kerry. The public insult was not an errant expression of ingratitude by a lone wolf, but part of…
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Like lambs to the slaughter, the Palestinians are sleep-walking to disaster, again
If he succeeds with his current “peace” initiative, John Kerry would have killed three birds, not two, with one stone. With the stroke of a pen his “proposed framework” will not only dissolve the Palestinian refugee issue but also deactivate Israel’s so-called demographic bomb. And for good measure, Israel would…