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Archive for February, 2009

Israel, Hamas, Fatah Prisoner Swap

Helena Cobban has a very detailed run down on the latest Israeli-Palestinian behind-the-scenes negotiations over prisoner releases that could free key Hamas and Fateh militants from Israeli hands, and one Israeli soldier held in Gaza since 2006. All of this could be the precursor to declaration of another truce between Hamas and Israel. At the [...]

Joint US-Palestinian Education in Jerusalem

I welcome the news that New York state’s Bard College and Jerusalem’s Al Quds University will offer joint programs beginning next academic year. According to the New York Times, “The plan, relying largely on outside financing, includes a liberal arts honors college and a master’s degree program in teaching, both located at Al Quds and [...]

Collective Despair Over Gaza

People around the world, among them journalists, commentators, bloggers, scholars and government leaders have decried the Israeli attack on Gaza. International Herald Tribune and New York Times columnist Roger Cohen writes in The New York Review of Books (February 12 issue), “I have never previously felt so despondent about Israel, so shamed by its actions, [...]

Gaza Set Back 20 Years

The latest war in the region ended January 18 when Israel and Hamas each declared separate ceasefires. During 23 days of bombardment and ground fighting, 1300 Palestinians (mostly civilians) and 13 Israelis (3 civilians) died. The disproportionate death toll tells the story of military asymmetry, but not the true dimensions of the human tragedy. In [...]