Current Analysis The Militarist and Messianic Ideologies Two weeks after 60,000 Likud Party members voted against a pullout from the Gaza Strip, about 150,000 Israelis filled Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, calling on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government to proceed with the withdrawal plan. Those opposing the pullout from Gaza support the vision of a Greate Neve Gordon • 12 min read
Current Analysis No Jordan Option Could the plan of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to "disengage" from the Gaza Strip "include a Jordanian presence" in the West Bank? So Sharon told his cabinet on June 1, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz. Since then, rumors about such a role for Jordan, Marc Lynch • 11 min read
MER Article Acts of Refusal Rela Mazali, an Israeli writer and feminist peace activist, is a founder of New Profile, a group challenging the militarization of Israeli society and opposing the occupation. Joel Beinin, an editor of Middle East Report, spoke with her in Herzliya, Israel on January 6, 2004 and continued the conver Joel Beinin • 9 min read
MER Article Israeli Constitutional Committee Faces Double Bind As Israel celebrated its fifty-sixth Independence Day in April 2004, with most cars, streets, homes and public buildings draped in the national colors of blue and white, a senior member of the Israeli parliament launched a salvo beloved of the Zionist majority. Ilan Shalgi of the secular Shinui party demanded Jonathan Cook • 16 min read
MER Article The Challenge to the Two-State Solution Ariel Sharon's push for unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four forlorn West Bank settlements in the spring of 2004 came after a year of mounting criticism inside and outside Israel that he had no long-term "solution" for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the prime Gary Sussman • 20 min read
Current Analysis In Rafah, History Hangs Heavy in the Air Early in the morning on May 21, on a road into the neighborhood of Tal al-Sultan in the Gazan town of Rafah, 71 year-old Muhammad Salama swung his walking stick at a blade of grass. Some 100 yards ahead of him an Israeli army bulldozer rumbled along, apparently clearing the Omar Karmi • 9 min read
Current Analysis Kerry on Israel: Me Too In a May 3 address to the Anti-Defamation League's National Leadership Conference, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry reiterated his steadfast support for Israel and assured attendees that, if elected, he would never force Israel to negotiate without a “credible partner.” Statem Catherine Cook • 4 min read
Current Analysis False Resolution Looms in EU-Israeli Settlement Trade Dispute George W. Bush's ever more one-sided interventions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most recently his uncritical backing for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's desired "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip, elicit thinly veiled declarations of dissent from the chanceries of the European Union. "No number Peter Lagerquist • 11 min read
Current Analysis Sharon's Sights on Strategic Objective Many critics of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon depict him as an adroit tactician who has a ready answer for every immediate problem, but entirely lacks a long-term strategy. Ari Shavit, a columnist for the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz, recently characterized the present Sharon government as ha Peretz Kidron • 9 min read
Current Analysis A New Kind of Killing The killing of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas, was a new kind of killing, even in the midst of the protracted conflict that began in the fall of 2000 and has claimed some 2,800 Palestinian and some 900 Israeli lives. Viewed by most Israelis as a kind Charmaine Seitz • 12 min read
MER Article No More Tears Benny Morris, 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, second edition, 1994). Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem R Joel Beinin • 19 min read
Current Analysis Sharon's Unilateral Steps As the Israeli army reimposed a nearly complete lockdown on the West Bank in the aftermath of the Christmas Day 2003 suicide bombing outside of Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has reportedly deputized a top general to draw up the "separation plan" he threatened seven days Joel Beinin • 10 min read
