Double U-Turn in ‘Theatre of the Absurd’

A double-barrelled ‘coup de théâtre’ – advanced, then postponed, elections within days – has disoriented a polity accustomed to grappling passively with their Prime Minister’s backstage intrigues. But the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ played outwardly by the "virtuoso of Israeli politics" conceals a deep need for stability.

U.S. Sets Israel in the Election Mood

If on Sep. 4, exit polls confirm what opinion polls currently predict – the reinstatement of a right-wing government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu – Israelis might still ask themselves, what was this general election about?

Israeli Boats Hunt Gunrunners, and Peace Groups

"Black flag – do not enter the water!" announces the lifeguard. The waves might not lap indolently at the beach; the beach might not yet be replete with laidback beachgoers. But it already vibrates to the frenzy beat of ‘sun and fun’. For Israel’s navy and marine police though, the just-opened beach season doesn’t exhale a sweet breeze of nonchalance.

Unwelcome in Israel, Activists Still Make a Point

That "Welcome to Palestine" isn’t ‘Welcomed to Israel’ couldn’t be clearer. Wishing to land in Israel and to protest the 45-year occupation of Palestine in Bethlehem, most ‘Fly-tilla’ activists were treated by Israel’s authorities as a "strategic menace", questioned, interned and deported.

Israel-Iran Matters Get Worse in Verse

A lyrical attack by Germany’s acclaimed novelist and essayist Günter Grass in which he labelled Israel’s alleged atomic arsenal and looming pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear installations a threat to world peace has triggered fury and controversy amongst Israelis.

China Puts Middle East Differences on Ice

In a first in years, snow blessed the Holy City last month. For a moment, hail metamorphosed into a paltry three-millimetre layer of white, liquid, light. Children and parents and snowmen relished the wonders of an almost real, though usually ephemeral, winter. But then, the Ice Age befell Jerusalem...

Drone Technology Takes Off

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) held its conference this month in Israel for the first time. Do future wars by land, sea and air belong to robots?

Donors Damaging Palestinian Economy

The latest Work Bank report on the Palestinian economy fuels the row on institutional viability precisely as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas considers renewing his statehood bid.

Palestinian Rights Retreat to Backburner

The latest tit-for-tat confrontation which earlier this week pitted Israel against Islamist factions operating from the Gaza Strip follows a conditioning pattern which highlights the marginalisation in the international arena of the Palestinian aspirations to freedom and independence.

No Red Lines, But No Red Light Either

Intense consultations at the highest level between the U.S. and Israel on how to coordinate their respective strategies vis-à-vis Iran indicate that a strike on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites, if launched by Israel, the U.S., or in tandem, wouldn’t occur this spring, probably not even before November.

Pictures Worth a Thousand Memories

There’s a story behind each of the 1,100 photos. Each photo is worth a thousand words and memories. Seventy-four-year-old Bracha Aris is a Holocaust survivor. She’s always kept her lips sealed about the past – until recently...

Pictures Worth a Thousand Memories

There’s a story behind each of the 1,100 photos. Each photo is worth a thousand words and memories. Seventy-four-year-old Bracha Aris is a Holocaust survivor. She’s always kept her lips sealed about the past – until recently...

‘When’ to Attack Iran, Not ‘If’

"The quiet before the storm" is how Israeli pundits describe the countdown – not to Israel going solo on Iran’s nuclear and military installations, but to the meeting between due Monday next week between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘When’ to Attack Iran, Not ‘If’

“The quiet before the storm” is how Israeli pundits describe the countdown – not to Israel going solo on Iran’s nuclear and military installations, but to the meeting between due Monday next week between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Placing Dignity Above Food

JERUSALEM, Feb. 19, 2012 (IPS) – On the day Israel released some 550 Palestinian prisoners in the second half of a swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who had been held for five-and-a-half years by Hamas in Gaza, an Islamic Jihad activist started an agonising hunger strike.

Israel Shifts Uneasily Over Syria

Grappling with the fallout on their country of a possible forced removal from power of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, Israeli leaders are fluctuating between wariness, cautious optimism, and self-righteousness.

Israel and Iran Agreed on Nuclear Ambiguity

Will Israel attack Iran’s nuclear facilities this spring? That is a question dominating the international agenda. Meanwhile, the grand project of a nuclear weapon-free Middle East is relegated to the utopian "day after" a solution is found to the Islamic republic’s atomic programme.

MIDEAST: And At Last There Was Water

Only days ago, turning on the tap was cause for concern. Would there be running water? Now, it’s reason for celebration.

MIDEAST: All Unclear on Nuclear

Blame for the shadowy war of attrition against Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes usually prompts vigorous U.S. and Israeli denials of involvement, or self-imposed silence. Yet, the two allies risk being hoisted on their own ambiguity petard.

MIDEAST: To Go On Talking

A second meeting of Palestinian and Israeli negotiators took place this week in Amman, Jordan, and expectedly bore no tangible result – except for an agreed third round by month’s end.

MIDEAST: Unwilling, Unable, Yet Talking

After a 15-month collapse, Palestinians and Israelis have met only to agree on sitting down face-to-face publicly once more on Friday. So far there is no breakdown, but no breakthrough either.