January 01, 2011

Jawaher Abu Rahmeh dies from tear-gas inhalation

I am sorry to report that 36-year-old Bil'in resident Jawaher Abu Rahmeh died last night from the after-effects of the poison gas the IOF uses against the nonviolent demonstrations that...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:14 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

December 31, 2010

Bil'in woman badly injured by tear-gas

This, from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee: Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 36, was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital after inhaling massive amounts of tear-gas towards protesters in Bil'in earlier today. She...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:12 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

September 18, 2010

Afghanistan's election: Some reflections

Back in 2004-05, Pres. Bush and his people were trying to 're-brand' America's overseas military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq as being part of a campaign to bring the wonderful...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:18 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

September 01, 2010

Chas Freeman calls for European, Arab activism on Israeli-Palestinian peace

The experienced American diplomatist Chas W. Freeman, Jr, has issued a strong call for European and Arab states to work together to ensure speedy attainment of Israeli-Palestinian peace, arguing that...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:48 AM | Fulltext link (39 comments)

July 23, 2010

Watch Emily Henochowizc's transformational song

Here. Hat-tip, Phil Weiss. Henochowicz is the young Jewish-American artist who lost an eye to an IDF tear-gas canister while protesting the continued building of the Apartheid Wall. She is...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:25 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

May 31, 2010

Israel's flotilla violence changing everything, Part 2

A. The fact that PM Netanyahu has decided that fallout from the IDF's gratuitously violent flotilla assault requires him to cancel his planned meeting in Washington Wednesday and return to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:15 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

May 13, 2010

Palestinian refugees beating the odds!

A wonderful story from CNN about three Palestinian refugee girls, their science teacher, and their head-teacher who have all contributed to the girls' success in being selected to participate in...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:19 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

May 01, 2010

Building the Paltustan road system

The 2.8 million Palestinians of the occupied West Bank are now gaining their very own segregated (and visibly inferior) road system-- in a way that is completely reliant, for any...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:12 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

April 22, 2010

The global politics of an Israeli-Palestinian peace

I was just thinking a little more about the global-political context within which any soon-foreseeable Palestinian-Israeli final peace might be concluded... That was after writing this blog post yesterday in...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:44 AM | Fulltext link (12 comments)

April 20, 2010

Traveling, family, refugees, etc

I am still intending to write some reflections on Sunday's Chicago Hearing, which was an amazing experience. However, my sister and her husband arrived on our doorstep in DC on...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:46 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

April 11, 2010

Intriguing work from new Palestinian 'Shabaka'

A sterling line-up of Palestinian policy analysts has now launched Al-Shabaka ('The Palestinian policy network'), which looks like an on-line think-tank that will be timely policy papers by these people...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:47 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

March 27, 2010

What's with 'direct negotiations'?

It is such a shibboleth in U.S. foreign-policy discourse these days-- to say that such-and-such an issue on the final-status agenda between Israelis and Palestinians "must be solved through direct...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:43 PM | Fulltext link (19 comments)

March 21, 2010

Yezid Sayigh on Hamas, Fayyad

The distinguished Palestinian historian and analyst Yezid Sayigh gave a tremendous talk Friday at the Palestine Center in Washington DC, where he reported on a recent, four-day visit to Gaza...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:29 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

March 08, 2010

Waskow's sad arguments against BDS

I was just watching the discussion that Amy Goodman (video here) recently moderated between Omar Barghouti of the Global BDS Movement and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, over the utility and ethics...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:50 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

March 04, 2010

Advancing to... 1949?

So now, Washington's "leadership" of the Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy looks poised to rush forward to... 1949, and the proximity talks that Ralph Bunche convened in Rhodes that year. Haaretz's reporters tell...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:18 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

March 03, 2010

Prolonged conflict and pro-natalism

Last month, uber-Zionist commentator Martin Kramer openly argued (Youtube here) the "political aim" of Israel's sanctions on Gaza is to break Gaza's runaway population growth... That may begin to crack...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:29 PM | Fulltext link (20 comments)

February 14, 2010

Malta: Notes from the conference, part 2

Washington long ago—under Henry Kissinger-- elbowed the United Nations completely out of the lead role that, by all rights, it should play in spearheading the search for lasting peace between...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:37 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)