I have spent the past two weeks in a private visit to the U.S. During this visit I tried to observe what the average Americans notices regarding the Middle East and have come up with the conclusion that very little attention is paid to the region. Two issues did come up in the media during my short visit.

The car bombing carried out in the north of Israel and the continued U.S. attempts to prepare the condition for a war against Iraq. Continue Reading »

I am a Jerusalemite and I love the city. But I am sick and tired of all the people who pretend to be interested in the city by their lip service but not by their action.

I say this because it seems that we are again in the annual Jerusalem season. The routine has become boring. The American congress for election’s related reasons pass some sort of Jerusalem resolution in congress aimed at pleasing the pro Israel lobby. The White House makes some sort of shy remark about not changing traditional US policies about Jerusalem. The Arab countries rise up as one man in protest of the US congressional resolution and two weeks later everyone forgets Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Ever since I started working as a journalist, I have been a member of the Palestinian Journalist’s Union. For us in Palestine during the early 1980s when I began my journalism career, the idea of professional unions was considered part of the struggle. It was considered by many as part of the nation building efforts and a clear act of protest against the Israeli occupation, which was denying Palestinians the basic right to self-determination. Continue Reading »