Hamas

Why was Shalit deal reached now?

by News Sources 10.21.2011

Share

Read the full article →

The value of talking to Hamas

by News Sources 10.19.2011

Gershon Baskin, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and founder and co-director of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, describes his role in securing the release of Gilad Shalit. But suppose a Post colleague of his such as Caroline Glick had been given the same opportunity. For the sake of upholding the “principle,” [...]

Read the full article →

Gilad Shalit and the end of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process

by News Sources 10.18.2011

Tony Karon writes: As momentous as Tuesday’s release of Sergeant Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners (with another 550 to freed within two months) may be, it is unlikely to be a game-changer — or a milestone on the road to peace. Indeed, while the spectacle of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu breaking the ostensible taboo [...]

Read the full article →

The deal behind the “Shalit deal”: prisoners, power, racism

by News Sources 10.18.2011

Toufic Haddad writes: Passing judgment on the Shalit deal cannot take place from a detached precipice of moral or political purity but, rather, must derive from an appreciation for the basic balance of forces at play between the contending parties and their historical precedents in relations between one another. There are no absolute criteria for [...]

Read the full article →

Israel, Hamas reach Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, officials say

by News Sources 10.11.2011

Haaretz reports: Israel and Hamas have reached a prisoner exchange deal that will secure the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, officials at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said that “a brief window of opportunity has been opened that would possibly lead to [...]

Read the full article →

Hamas leader differs with Iran’s leader on Palestinian bid for statehood

by News Sources 10.04.2011

Richard Silverstein has a report which hasn’t appeared elsewhere in the English-language media. The article which originally appeared in Farsi on Iran’s Radio Farda says: Khaled Meshal, head of the political office of Hamas in Syria said that the request of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, for recognition of an independent Palestinian state [...]

Read the full article →

Tony Judt: Israel is a country fast losing touch with reality

by News Sources 09.15.2011

On July 6, 2010, a month before Tony Judt died and shortly after Israel’s deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara, he was interviewed by Merav Michaeli, a columnist for Ha’aretz. Merav Michaeli: How do you see Israel’s actions in the Flotilla affair? Tony Judt: The characterization that comes to mind is “autistic.” Israel behaved in [...]

Read the full article →

The mysterious raid on Eilat: why no one wants to dig too deep

by News Sources 09.09.2011

Karl Vick and Khan Younis report: A month after an unusual terror attack killed eight Israelis along a desert highway approaching the Red Sea, the incident remains shrouded in mystery, especially in Gaza, where Israeli officials insist the complex, military-style attack was orchestrated but where no group has taken responsibility. “Usually the problem is more [...]

Read the full article →

The problem with Palestinian political leadership

by News Sources 09.01.2011

Ben White writes: For a few months now, discussion of Palestine/Israel has focused on the looming UN vote on Palestinian statehood, but this is obscuring more fundamental problems in the Palestinian political arena – of which the forthcoming UN vote is a symptom. In three critical areas, there are significant flaws hampering Palestinian political leadership. [...]

Read the full article →

Israel’s security strategy — when in doubt, hit Gaza

by Paul Woodward 08.21.2011

Three days after the attacks by gunmen outside Eilat in southern Israel, what do we know about the identities of the gunmen? Almost nothing. In the mainstream media they are blithely referred to as “Palestinian gunmen” yet so far the only basis for this description is the unsubstantiated word of Israeli officials. Those officials have [...]

Read the full article →

While Gaza is being bombed by Israel, Hamas armed wing decides a unilateral ceasefire is worthless

by News Sources 08.19.2011

Ma’an News Agency reports: The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, has called off a ceasefire with Israel and will allow factions in Gaza to respond to Israeli attacks, Al-Aqsa Radio reported late Friday. “There can be no truce with the Israeli occupation while it commits massacres against the Palestinian people without justification,” a [...]

Read the full article →

The context of the Eilat attacks and the threat to Gaza

by Paul Woodward 08.19.2011

Israelis who today for some reason feel safer because Gaza is getting bombed, might pause to consider this question: why would a member of the group that launched attacks outside Eilat yesterday — a group supposedly based in Gaza and sworn to the destruction of Israel — today blow himself up in an attack on [...]

Read the full article →

Who benefits from the attacks in Israel?

by Paul Woodward 08.18.2011

Today’s attacks in southern Israel in which gunmen killed eight people were clearly carefully planned. It seems reasonable to assume that as much attention was given to the attacks’ timing. Reuters reported: The Magen David Adom ambulance service said seven people were killed along the road, just meters from the border with Egypt. The military [...]

Read the full article →

Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria flee during military assault

by News Sources 08.17.2011

The New York Times reports: United Nations officials said Tuesday that as many as 10,000 residents of a Palestinian refugee neighborhood in the Syrian port city of Latakia had fled during a four-day assault, as security forces carried out more arrests and intimidation in what residents said was a government attempt to rebuild a wall [...]

Read the full article →

Norwegians still see the occupation as reason for attacks on Israel

by News Sources 07.27.2011

In the Hebrew daily, Ma’ariv, Norway’s ambassador to Israel, Svein Sevje, was interviewed on Tuesday and asked whether the attacks in Oslo and Utøya carried out by Anders Behring Breivik, will alter Norwegians’ perception of Palestinian attacks on Israel. Q: Has this caused you to undertake some soul-searching? Has it changed Norway’s and its citizens’ [...]

Read the full article →

Eyes open in Gaza, June 2011

by News Sources 06.23.2011

Helena Cobban writes: The Gaza Strip is a heavily urbanized sliver of land, some 30 miles long, that nestles against the southeast corner of the Mediterranean and that for many reasons– including the fact that more than 75% of its 1.6 million are refugees from within what is now Israel– has always been a crucible [...]

Read the full article →

Fayyad to stay on as Palestinian prime minister

by News Sources 06.22.2011

DPA reports: Salam Fayyad on Tuesday dismissed reports that he was thinking of stepping down as Palestinian prime minister after the Islamist Hamas movement rejected him as a candidate to run the new government. The Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas had insisted on Fayyad staying as prime minister. Abbas told a Lebanese television station [...]

Read the full article →

Gaza border opening little more than rhetoric

by News Sources 06.16.2011

Ramzy Baroud writes: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country,” states Article 13 (2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This universal principle, however, continues to evade most Palestinians in Gaza. I was one of the very first Palestinians who stood at Rafah following [...]

Read the full article →

Hamas rejects Fatah nominee for PM

by News Sources 06.13.2011

BBC News reports: The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has rejected its rival Fatah’s nomination of Salam Fayyad as prime minister in a transitional government. The decision came hours after Fatah agreed to back Mr Fayyad, who currently heads the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank. Delegates from the two factions are due to meet [...]

Read the full article →

Hamas to participate in any future Palestinian government, senior official says

by News Sources 06.09.2011

DPA reports: Hamas will participate in any future Palestinian government, a senior official from the Islamist group said Thursday, refuting press reports that it might opt not to take part in a future administration. “Nothing would prevent us” from participating in any government after new elections, Salah al-Bardaweel, a high-ranking Hamas leader in the Gaza [...]

Read the full article →

Hamas considers hands-off approach

by News Sources 06.09.2011

The Associated Press reports: After four years of turbulent rule in the Gaza Strip, the Islamic militant group Hamas is weighing a new strategy of not directly participating in future governments even if it wins elections — an approach aimed at avoiding isolation by the world community and allowing for continued economic aid. Hamas officials [...]

Read the full article →

The untold story of the deal that shocked the Middle East

by News Sources 06.07.2011

Robert Fisk reports: Secret meetings between Palestinian intermediaries, Egyptian intelligence officials, the Turkish foreign minister, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal – the latter requiring a covert journey to Damascus with a detour round the rebellious city of Deraa – brought about the Palestinian unity which has so disturbed both Israelis and [...]

Read the full article →

Egypt-Gaza border opening turns out to be less than billed

by News Sources 05.31.2011

McClatchy reports: Mufid al Masry, 46, was so excited about his first trip to Egypt that he couldn’t sleep the night before he set out for the Rafah border crossing, which Egypt’s ruling military council ordered opened Saturday under new hours and fewer restrictions for Palestinian travelers. So when Egyptian border guards rejected him, citing [...]

Read the full article →

A Palestinian revolt in the making?

by News Sources 05.26.2011

Jesse Rosenfeld and Joseph Dana write: At 10:30 on May 15, two battalions of Israeli combat soldiers opened fire with tear gas and rubber bullets on hundreds of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators at the Qalandia checkpoint dividing Ramallah from Jerusalem, sending people scrambling into the adjacent refugee camp. These were the opening shots of Israel’s response [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →