By Daoud Kuttab

The following appeared in the Jordan Times

The Palestinian cause continues to attract supporters from around the world. Volunteers wishing to give some of their time and expertise in solidarity with Palestinians have become a regular feature in Palestinian society.

Many young people wanting to spend a year or so in a conflict area choose Palestine for many reasons.

By volunteering in Palestine a person is clearly and publicly siding with the oppressed in their just struggle for freedom and independence. Some of the volunteers involve themselves in Palestinian nation building while others take on a more direct role in the resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Even those who are involved in overt acts of solidarity with Palestinians and resistance to occupation can be divided into a number of groups. Some express their solidarity by joining Palestinian demonstrators protesting various symbols of occupation.

Perhaps the most repeated act of international solidarity in recent years has been the participation of internationals in the weekly Friday demonstrations against the Israeli security wall built deep in Palestinian territories.

Internationals expressing solidarity are seen weekly in protests at Bilin, Nabi Saleh and other Palestinian locations. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

AMMAN – Throughout the post-colonial period, Arab countries have consistently failed to produce an efficient – let alone democratic – system of government. Now, after a half-century of competition between military or royal dictatorships and militant Islamist regimes, many Arabs are again seeking a “third way” – a path toward a credible form of representative democracy. But will their efforts prove as futile now as they have in the past?

The Middle East – named for its geographic position between Europe and East Asia – was under Ottoman rule for 400 years before the Allied powers, after defeating the Ottomans in World War I, partitioned the region into distinct political units that, under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, fell within spheres of influence carved out by the United Kingdom and France. But, in response to these new divisions, an Arab awakening – shaped by pan-Arabism and support for Palestine – was occurring.

Charismatic young military rulers-turned-dictators like Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi, Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, and Syria’s Hafez al-Assad used these popular causes to win public support. But their failure to deliver better lives to their citizens, together with the discrediting of left-wing ideologies following the Soviet Union’s collapse, fueled the rise of a rival movement: political Islam.

The Muslim Brotherhood – established in the Egyptian town of Ismailia in 1928 and political Islam’s oldest, best organized, and most widespread proponent – was (and is) despised by both secular Arabs and Arab monarchies. Indeed, secular dictators have worked to suppress the Brothers at every turn – often violently, as when Assad ruthlessly crushed a Brotherhood-led uprising in Hama in 1982. Continue Reading »

by Daoud Kuttab

Proponents of the two-state solution have for years faced a grim outlook. Every new Jewish settlement that pops up on the lands slated for a Palestinian state has added to the despair and disillusionment with any peace process.

After 46 years of military occupation and colonial policies highlighted by an aggressive attempt to build exclusive Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas, it is no surprise that many are losing faith in a peace based on the two-state solution. The latest intellectual to join the ranks of the disenchanted is American political scientist Ian Steven Lustick.

In a powerful essay in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Lustick, a University of Pennsylvania professor, lays out the problems that the continuation of defending and promoting the two-state solution has created. Using examples from Ireland, the Soviet Union and other places, Lustick simply argues that the two-state solution currently makes no sense and that clinging to it is an illusion. He criticizes the US diplomatic machinery, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel — as well as pundits, journalists and nongovernmental organizations — all of which have built careers on defending the indefensible. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The Russian-American breakthrough that has averted an attack on Syria for using chemical weapons has given some in the Middle East hope that such cooperation can be helpful in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

While this week marks the 40th anniversary of the 1973 war, few are suggesting that the current US-Russian cooperation is anything akin to the Cold War. But the presence of a second power, albeit, much less powerful than America, does provide possibilities for shaking up a unipolar world, especially in the volatile Middle East.

Russia is no stranger to the Middle East conflict. There are perhaps more Arabic-speaking diplomats and experts in Russia than in any other major world power. Russian diplomacy has even added to its arsenal the Arabic service of Russia Today, an Arabic language satellite station that has become a necessary ingredient for any country interested in having a say in the Middle East. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Musab Shawabkeh, the skinny young journalist who has been involved in investigative journalism since his second year at college came running to my office this week. He had made a discovery about Mawared, the flag ship company owned by the Jordanian armed forces. As part of a report he was researching on financial integrity of top Jordanian officials he sought information about ownership of companies abroad. Working with the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo, Shawabkeh had discovered that the Jordanian army’s Mawared has registered a company in the European tax-haven of Luxembourg and that this company had branched in the UK, the Virgin Islands, Dubai and Morocco.

Shawabkeh is an investigative journalist in Radio al Balad a community radio based in Amman, Jordan who was trained with ARIJ, Arab Reporters for Investigative journalism. Even before publishing a word about it, the integrity of politicians report has been attracting attention and worry. When the head of the Jordanian parliament’s legal affairs committee failed to show up for an interview Musab filmed a stand up in front of the empty desk and made it clear to staffers that this is how his response will appear on youtube. Within minutes of returning to the office, the MP called Musab apologized for not showing up and agreed to give the on record interview.

This newly found courage didn’t come easy. Continue Reading »

Following appeared in Jordan Times and Huffington Post.

By Daoud Kuttab

Shortly after the vote in the British parliament to oppose a strike on Syria, an American newspaper reported the decision of the House of Commons in an unusual way. In a spoof to the independence cry, the Daily News ran a front-page headline repeating twice the phrase: “The British are not coming.”

While it has become clear that the British are not coming to America’s aid in the military theatre, the global political movement is witnessing the arrival of an old/new player.

Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, appear to have made a grand entry into the international political scene. The handling of the Syrian file, the G-20 conference and the Russian-US relations all added up to a shrewd and brilliant performance. Russia has shown it respects its allies, uses all its assets and privileges and knows how to translate its powers into accomplishments.

The Russian Federation, which was left from the old Soviet Union, appeared to be a weak player in the international political landscape and a weak partner compared to giants such as the US, Germany, France or China. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Twenty years ago, then-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn to publicly declare mutual recognition and to sign the interim memorandum of understanding that had been agreed to in secret talks in Oslo. The Oslo Accordsand the various agreements that stemmed from them have become the main reference point between Palestinians and Israelis. But instead of being a precursor to permanent peace, these accords are seen by many Palestinians as the main source of the continuation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. There are 15 problems with the accords, as seen from the Palestinian side:

1. Temporary nature. The accords were produced in such a way as to promote a gradual change in the situation. The authors of the agreement wanted to give the leaders time to convince their publics and to build trust. The agreement was expected to last no more than five years. Now, 20 years later, the Palestinian nightmare that the interim agreement would become permanent has been realized. No clause existed in the agreement to deal with this problem.
2. Lack of framework. Not only has this temporary agreement become permanent, but its temporary nature allowed its framers to avoid some basic issues that should have set the parameters. Issues such as borders, settlements, refugees, security and Jerusalem were to be solved within this five-year period without a clear reference point by which future negotiators would be bound. The absence of a framework also left vague the status of the areas occupied in 1967, so Palestinians couldn’t and still can’t demand that Israel treat these areas as occupied territories, although the entire world sees them as such. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

A quick roundup of statements by Palestinian leaders to the press and details of discussions with Western officials reveal an increase in the level of frustration in the peace talks with Israel. Regardless, it is clear that the Palestinians have no interest in scuttling the nine-month time frame of the negotiations, possibly due to the staggered dates for releasing long-term Palestinian prisoners.

Of interest, none of the statements credited to Palestinian leaders include President Mahmoud Abbas or the chief negotiators, Saeb Erekat and Mohammad Shtayyeh. Palestinian and Israeli leaders have made a commitment to US Secretary of State John Kerry to keep the talks secret, with only the United States being authorized to make statements regarding the peace process.

The volley of statements began with a scathing comment by Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, who warned in August that the talks could end in “disaster.”

The New York Times ran a Sept. 9 story that quoted unnamed Palestinian sources complaining about the absence of an agreed upon reference point for the talks. The report was written largely by veteran journalist Mohammad Daraghmeh, who has strong and reliable connections among the Palestinian leadership. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

A strange phenomenon exists in Palestine these days. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is constantly attacked and criticized, continues to do very well in local and international polls, and his policies are generally well-regarded among ordinary Palestinians. What makes the Palestinian president such a Teflon leader, where accusations against him never stick and his popularity remains relatively high?

A simple search of social media will reveal a lot of negative adjectives associated with the Palestinian leader. He is called a traitor, Israeli puppet, sell-out, corrupt, unpatriotic, fraud and an unelected autocrat, among many other terms. Some of these accusations are at times publicly stated, as in the recent demonstrations staged in Ramallah against the peace talks. In speaking to his own Fatah leadership, Abbas even commented on the vile language that is being used in some of these public protests.

But for all this negative language leveled against the Palestinian leader, very little of it seems to stick. Public opinion polls consistently give Abbas high-performance ratings, and whenever he is polled against potential competitors, he and his Fatah movement have done very well. The latest pollconducted in August shows Abbas continuing to outpoll Hamas’ Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

In the early years of the Palestinian Authority (PA), one of its biggest goals was to establish sovereignty over Palestinian land. This included what is below the ground as well as the skies above. While the fight over land has been the biggest challenge, Palestinians have been successful in capturing the skies by launching tens of local radio and TV stations, which reserved available frequencies and prevented the Israelis from occupying them as well. This week, six new online radio stations were launched by the Bethlehem-based Palestine News Network.

The first annex of the Oslo Accords references the “possibility of licensing” radio and TV stations in the context of Palestinian elections. Initial licenses for Palestine TV and Voice of Palestine radio were in fact agreed upon, but a joint technical committee that was supposed to look into requests for private radio and TV licenses has rarely met and has not agreed on any private licenses.

This led the PA to encourage private organizations and individuals to apply for and get “special temporary permits” from the Ministry of Information. Tens of radio and TV stations hit the airwaves. The farsightedness of Palestinian leaders, among them Yasser Abed Rabbo, to provide for the proliferation of these stations proved to be prescient, especially in 2002, when the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed the studios and towers of the PA’s state-run radio and TV. Private stations complied with emergency requests for use of their frequencies to continue the work of the official Palestinian media until their towers could be repaired. Continue Reading »