Arab/Palestinian – ME

MYTH Palestine was always an Arab country. FACT The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the twelfth century BCE, settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain — now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century CE, after crushing the last …

The prospect of Donald Trump presenting a future US peace plan which excludes Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees has led to a single-minded focus by Palestinians and their supporters on their Right of Return. The leader of the UK opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, has been to Jordan to reaffirm his support for …

Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen,  in January 2005  was elected as the President of the Palestinian Authority to succeed Yasser Arafat in the West Bank and Gaza, aka Judaea and Samaria. The PLO chairman and was elected for a four-year term  after which there was ‘supposed’ to be …

In recent weeks, rumours have been swirling as to the substance of the much anticipated “deal of the century”, billed by the Trump administration as a compelling blueprint for resolving the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has plagued the region for decades.  Shrouded in secrecy, it has long been held …

I puzzled for a while over the name for this posting. For I might just as easily have referred to PA hysteria, or hate, or delirium. All apply. Dr. Moti Kedar, in his recent op-ed “The Palestinian Civil War,” provides a translation of an article by one Ra’afat Mara that …

If, as Morris maintains, a peaceable two-state outcome is unattainable, and a one-state outcome will lead to a Muslim-majority tyranny, then a large-scale initiative for incentivized Arab emigration is the only policy that can preserve the Jewish nation-state. As readers will recall, I have, for years, been urging the initiation …

In recent years, Israel has waged a covert war against a large-scale Hamas effort to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip, a Hebrew-language media report has said. The Jan. 6 report, citing unspecified international media sources, was published in Walla News, one of the largest online Israeli news agencies. Since …

On November 11, there was a ‘botched’ Israeli special forces raid near Khan Yunis in Gaza. We cannot know exactly what the mission intended, but Nour Baraka, a regional commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (military wing of Hamas) was one of those killed in the exchange of fire. Following …

Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon to-be-released peace plan has vanished – after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” …

President Trump’s National Security Adviser – John Bolton – has exposed the fiction that there is a legally-constituted “State of Palestine” – shredding United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations (UN) resolutions misleadingly recognising such a state when none – in fact – exists. Bolton was …

Don’t underestimate Trump’s deal-making ability to end what he himself has called “the war that never ends” Creating another Palestinian Arab state – in addition to Jordan – has been seemingly consigned to the garbage bin of history following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s CNN interview on 28 September. President …

President Trump’s decision to close the PLO mission in Washington, cancel the visas of the Palestinian Ambassador and his family and order their bank accounts be closed – mark the PLO’s final humiliation for condemning Trump’s proposed peace plan before its contents have even been published. Strangely however the United …

Nose to Nose Assuming 😞 that efforts to persuade deputy head of government of Ireland and Government of Ireland second-most senior officer Tánaiste Simon Coveney to cancel his meeting with Mahmud Abbas fail, what should they talk about over coffee and biscuits?

President Trump has created a veritable diplomatic tsunami affecting the political fortunes of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas and Jordan – with his decision to cease all future donations to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – currently US$360million per annum and comprising about 30 percent of …

Two major developments this past week could see a large part of Judaea and Samaria (West Bank) being reunified with Jordan – as existed between 1950 and 1967 – or becoming a Jordanian enclave – under President Trumps’ yet-to-be- announced “ultimate deal” intended to resolve the100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict. Those developments …

As Fatah party contenders who hope to succeed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly arm themselves ahead of a looming power struggle, Fatah’s arch rival, Hamas, is making its own preparations to dominate the West Bank. The fundamentalist Islamist movement has already established a de facto state and terrorist …

The first instalment of a conversation on the street outside the Presidential Compound, Ramallah. Earlier this year I visited Ramallah for the first time, accompanied by a German journalist and guide. As we were returning to our vehicle, having visited Arafat’s tomb, a Palestinian lawyer began to chat with our …

The fires around Israel have been burning for weeks, a direct result of the hundreds of arson attacks launched by Palestinian Arab terrorists in Gaza.  And the United Nations has been silent. Well, not exactly. The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov made remarks …

I know that people like to simply say “The Palestinians”, but we are actually dealing with two very different groups, different experiences and different histories, and trying to make sense of it whilst not separating them.  The one group lived in Judaea/Samaria, on what became known as “the West Bank” …

My visit to the so-called ‘occupied West Bank’ in November 2017 has taken me some time  to get ‘down on paper’.  I just haven’t managed to find the time to do it. I was staying with a with a friend in Jerusalem who, when I mentioned I’d be interested in …