Arab Writers Group Syndicate

Hamas kills civilians, but not as many as Israel
By Ray Hanania — Reuters, which is slightly more objective in covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict than most of its other Western counterparts, conservatively estimates that Israel’s military has killed “more than 100″ Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip during the past four months of this year. Palestinians put the number higher, at more than 250. B’tselem, the besieged Israeli human rights organization ostracized by fellow Jews, reports that Israeli soldiers have killed a total of 323 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year. When it comes to counting Palestinian lives, the numbers are always fast and loose, often dictated by Israeli control and a pro-Israel Western news media that hesitates to criticize Israeli policies too harshly. Read more »

Taybeh School  Reflects Steadfastness of  Palestinians
Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D., – (Taybeh, Palestine) Thursday was simply a magnificent day in Taybeh with the Latin Patriarchate School celebrating their Open Day activities which included many “Dabkeh” dance groups, sports, poetry and even a special skit ironically reflecting life with the “Apartheid” Wall between Israelis and Palestinians.  Children, who have been deprived from every normal activity of childhood that others around the world take for granted finding the hope to laugh, sing, and dream of a better future but stuck in the misery of occupation.  Most of the performances encompassed holding the Palestinian flag in the highest position as a symbol of the strong yearning for a free Palestine.

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Why are some people partying like it’s 1948?
By Linda Mamoun - Two weeks before Israel’s 60th anniversary the House and Senate voted unanimously to pass resolutions honoring “the founding of the modern State of Israel.” Before the House vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in on the deliberations saying, “I urge our colleagues to speak with one voice, and support this resolution recognizing the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. In doing so, we not only commend Israel, we also bring luster to this House by associating ourselves with that great state of Israel.” To further commemorate Israeli independence, Pelosi reserved time through the month of June for a weekly series of floor speeches. Read more »

At 60, Palestinians and Israelis must apologize and speak against their extremists as one voice
By Ray Hanania– The Hebrews fled Egyptian persecution more than 5,000 years ago, and yet their modern day ancestors continue to live in “da-nile.” Palestinians are often described as the most educated people in the Arab world, and yet they allow reason and common sense to be occupied by emotion. Israeli denial and Palestinian emotions stand in the way of peace and fuel the extremists on both sides. Neither side will acknowledge the pain they bring to the other nor will they stand up and silence the loud but small minority of extremists among their own people who exploit the conflict and have helped work against peace. What else is new after more than 60 years of conflict? Read more »

Prisoners of the past as the Palestine-Israel conflict hits 60 years
By Ray Hanania – Arabs and Jews share one trait: They master the art of selectively remembering the past, especially the tragedies. For Jews, it is the Holocaust. For Palestinians, it is “al-Nakba,” an Arab word for “the catastrophe.” But the biggest problem has always been the manner in which each side has championed their suffering while ignoring their own guilt. Jews mastered the art of public relations and communications, while Arabs mastered emotion, anger and hate. In more than 60 years, little has changed. Read more »

Orwell’s 1984 and its dyslexic Big Brother, 1948
By Ali Alarabi – In May of 1948, Jews, later Israelis, in Palestine and around the world rejoiced at the proclamation of themselves - a new country in Palestine. They called it Israel. Read more »

Or Why I Hate Talk Radio.
By Linda Mamoun – Talk of the Nation, the call-in show on NPR, was not so good today. The host, Neal Conan, had Aaron David Miller on to talk about the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and Miller’s new book The Much Too Promised Land.

I never intended to call in. The last time I called in to a radio show was about three years ago, and I had been overwrought and completely inarticulate. But this time I thought I could do it. Things were going well. I was driving home from the gym. Neal Conan was annoying, as always, but Aaron Miller seemed reasonable. He had spent twenty years in the Middle East as a negotiator and had certainly paid his dues. He deserved the chance to speak “diplomatese” on Talk of the Nation. Read more »

Facebook caves in to pressure and threats
By Ray Hanania – Boy. That didn’t take long for Facebook to cave in to extremist pro-Israel pressure. The ink wasn’t dry on yesterday’s column in which I applauded Facebook for doing the right thing. Doing the right thing is so rare in today’s world of lying, deception and political principle. And apparently, it’s even rarer at Facebook when it comes to the issue of Palestine and Israel. Read more »

Arabs driven by biases that mirror Israeli biases
By Ray Hanania – Last month, Hamas terrorists fired rockets into Israel and killed an Israeli girl. The attack provoked a massive response from Israel which claimed to target Hamas militants but ended up killing dozens of Palestinian civilians. Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs roundly condemned the Israeli attacks, but made no mention of the murder of the Israeli girl. Israelis were no different, condemning the murder of the little girl and then excusing away the murder of scores of innocent Palestinian civilians. As the back and forth escalated, the partisanship increased with Palestinians ignoring their attacks against Israel and Israelis ignoring their attacks against Palestinians. And people wonder why peace has been elusive so far in the Middle East. Read more »

Facebook defines a policy of fairness in an unfair world
By Ray Hanania – In this age of Israeli domination of the news media, and most of the political debate in the American dominated world, it is refreshing to find an objective face in the crowd. That objective face is Facebook, the popular Internet social networking site that began as a place for college students to gather in Cyber Space, but that has fast transformed into one of the most popular of online gathering places for people of all ages, even surpassing the more political MySpace. No longer restricted to college students, Facebook is open to the entire world. As a result, the “entire world” now has a say in terms of how that “entire world” should be portrayed on the Internet. Read more »