Discussions on the Palestine issue are usually framed as Hamas vs. Israel. This suggests Hamas is merely an organization when in fact it is the democratically-elected government of Palestine, having won the last all-Palestine election in 2006. Or at least it was. That government collapsed after violent assault from Israel
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drive-by planet: Netanyahu gov deceived public about killings of Israeli teens: incident exploited for political ends
A short time following the kidnapping of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, Israeli authorities knew the teens were dead. They knew who the Hebron-based suspects in the killings were, yet the details were covered up. The gag order that banned media outlets from reporting details on the incident
Continue readingFatah and Hamas reconcile … finally
Family quarrels can be nasty affairs, and the seven-year tiff between Fatah and Hamas has been no exception. In the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won a decisive majority in the parliament, much to the chagrin of the then ruling PLO-affiliated Fatah party. Encouraged by Israel, the U.S., and western
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Pushing the Envelope on Palestinian Sovereignty
There has not been much movement of late on the Israeli-Palestinian front. This may partly be explained by the relative lack of violent activity by Palestinian groups. The conflict has dropped off the radar for most of the Israeli public, and the only constituency the government needs to worry about
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