Commentary & Analysis

By international donor standards $720 million is small change. Yet, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has only managed to...

The search for a successor to President Mahmoud Abbas is getting nastier every day. His bitter rival, Mohamed Dahlan, has emerged as the front runner and favoured candidate. Regional...

Desperate people often do desperate things. This is perhaps the only way to explain the visit to Jerusalem by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General, Iyad Madani....

The news that the right-wing Henry Jackson Society has pulled funds for parliamentary groups rather than disclose who its own donors are will be no surprise to those who...

With the necessary political will, President Barack Obama's 17 December announcement that "it's time for a new approach" towards Cuba could be applied to Palestine. There is, indeed, a...

Three fundamental and one extraneous force are currently colliding in our region. Each of these forces has its own agenda and because none of them is truly dominant, the...

The decision by the General Court of the European Union to annul the decision to place Hamas on the European list of terrorist organisations was long overdue. It should...

It is now official. The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has placed Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi on its "wanted" list. The decision to issue a "red alert" for the arrest...

For all its bravado, Israel is terrified of bad publicity. So it should be, for neither the legions of public relations companies nor well-paid lobbyists have been able to...

Hamas has options should the parties charged with reconstructing the Gaza Strip fail to do so, a senior member of the group said yesterday. Deputy leader Mousa Abu-Marzouk told...

The first thing that catches the eye about the newly-released United Arab Emirates list of 83 "terrorist organisations" is its broad sweep. It contains Islamic institutions from across Europe,...

Just when the new Al-Aqsa intifada was gathering momentum the homes of senior Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip were bombed this week. Those responsible must be rubbing their...

Not for the first time the Obama administration and the Israeli government have been hanging out their dirty linen in public. On the face of it, the Americans are...

Are there similarities between the so-called "Islamic State" in Iraq and Syria and the self-styled "Jewish State" in Palestine? Quite a few. For a start, both thrive on religious...

Supporters of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had much to celebrate after his maiden appearance at the UN General Assembly last month. For them, it was a turning point...

Death in the Mediterranean is no longer the exception; it is the norm. More than 3,000 would-be immigrants have drowned trying to cross into Europe this year alone. Recent...

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...

Israel's inability to crush the Palestinian resistance in Gaza has triggered renewed efforts to end its war. While Britain and France spearhead a European initiative to obtain a UN...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

During the past week much has been written about whether the long expected third intifada has started. Opinion is still split down the middle. Despite the differences there remains...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

They could have gone to another friendly city in the Middle East or Europe, but a group of leading Egyptian opposition figures chose Brussels to launch their initiative to...

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...