Opinion

Two months before the Palestinian election, I met in Ramallah with Hassan Yousef, a senior West Bank leader of Hamas. Talking to him before he began an interview on our Ramallah TV station about the upcoming elections, Yousef told me that it would be wrong for Hamas to win more than 25 per cent of the Palestinian Legislative Council seats.

Yousef predicted that winning the elections would be disastrous to Hamas. I remembered him as I was reflecting on the predicament Hamas finds itself these days.

by Daoud Kuttab

Just how much influence does the Israel lobby have? Sparked by a study published by John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard, a new debate on this question is raging.

by Hasan Abu Nimah

Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Hamas to visit Moscow last month, and suggested that Iran transfer its uranium enrichment program to Russian territory. Both proposals exasperated the United States and surprised the world.

by Yin Gang

by Gershon Baskin

Jerusalem - In each generation each [Jewish] person must regard themselves as if they personally were redeemed from Egypt. Abba Eban once said "The redemption of the Jews from Egyptian bondage must be regarded in any serious view of history as one of the authentic points of climax in the progress of mankind. The memory of Israel's first struggle for freedom has inspired and consoled many subsequent movements for national independence. The Exodus is the original and classic episode of national liberation."

That memory and that struggle are retold every year by us to our children so that they will remember that we, too, were slaves in Egypt and today we are free. This Pessah [Passover] season we will once again celebrate our liberation from slavery and our freedom as a nation.

If political and economic reform are supposed to “drain the swamp” and lead to a more peaceful, prosperous Arab world, we should be prepared to be patient for the process to bear fruit. The swamp — like all organic phenomena that hate oblivion — is fighting back, and showing its considerable muscle.

The swamp of the contemporary Middle East is fed by homegrown political discontent, chronic abuse of power, economic stress, social inequity and sustained abuse by foreign powers. The swamp will only retreat when more wholesome forces are able to mobilise effectively and push it back. This has yet to happen, but an important learning process is under way.

by Rami G. Khouri

Adam Keller interviews Israeli refuser Uri Nathan

At a Bible class in my elementary school, we learned about some war that the ancient Hebrews waged against some of their enemies, the Amalekites I think.

What I remember was that after winning they slaughtered all their captives, which was okay as far as God was concerned, but an officer who looted some property was punished very severely. The teacher asked us who had acted wrong in this affair and I said it was the prophet who urged the Hebrews to start this war. It was not the answer she expected.

an interview with Sameer Abu Aisheh

The international community should cooperate with the elected Palestinian government and support the democracy it always talks about.