Palestine Think Tank

By Tommaso Di Francesco, translated by Diego Traversa
The diverging international reactions to former American President Jimmy Carter’s initiative in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and the attention it is receiving from the Arab and Muslim world underscores a fact that has been ignored in Italy and Europe.
Indeed, what we’re facing is the arrival at an original [...]

(Arabic translation below)
WRITTEN BY ABDUL BARI ATWAN,Editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Translated by Adib S. Kawar
The last four days uncovered the reality of the balance of power in Lebanon, for when the pro-government leaders, such as Saad Al-Hariri and Walid Jumblatt find themselves under siege, and cannot leave their headquarters, and ask for the army’s protection, [...]

(illustration by Mazen Kerbaj - translation below*)
What is going on today in Lebanon is just an extension of the situation in the entire region. The US and its western allies are trying to show everyone that religion is the main factor of this dispute and they are trying to cover the political motivations and especially [...]

The Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development has released its poll results.  The poll was conducted under strict sampling methodology (margin of error +/- 1.6%) amongst a representative population in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Lebanon and Jordan.  The full survey can be viewed here: 2008 Arab Public Opinion Survey (power point).
Key [...]

The world media have been gawking at, salivating over and provoking conflict in Lebanon since. . . well, since the bombs stopped falling in the Summer 2006.  As if the 33-day war merely whet their appetite for the drama of death and destruction, the media have analysed every vibration in Lebanon as the prelude to [...]

WRITTEN BY THE VINEYARD SAKER
The rumors about a US attack on Iran have been recently re-energized by the sacking of Admiral Fallon, the arrival of a new US Navy Carrier in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, Cheney’s recent visit to the region, General David “Ass-kissing chickenshit” Petraeus’ testimony in Congress, Secretary Gate’s silly comments [...]

In the picture, David Welch, the US Near East Affairs emissary with Fouad Siniora. Lebanese labor unions called for a strike on May 7th for adjusting the salaries of the public and private sector employees and workers, as salaries and wages had not been adjusted for the last ten years, although the cost of living [...]

The House Armed Services Committee is banishing the global war on terror from the 2008 defense budget.
This is not because the war has been won, lost or even called off, but because the committee’s Democratic leadership doesn’t like the phrase.
A memo for the committee staff, circulated March 27 (2007), says the 2008 bill and its [...]

Khalid Amayreh from Occupied East Jerusalem, 15 April, 2008
Is Arab oil more precious than Arab blood? This is a question that many Palestinians are asking these days in light of the oil-rich Arab states’ reluctance to help the Palestinians withstand the most ferocious onslaught ever being waged by Zionism against the Palestinian people’s very existence.
Today, [...]

A continuation of the reports from the Bruxelles Tribunal on the Israeli War Against Lebanon.
Three expert witnesses gave scientific testimony about the weapons that were used by Israel against Lebanon in the war that lasted 33 days, as well as the effects these armaments had on people and objects. Lebanese nuclear physicist and expert in [...]