After years of gloom, Palestine woke up this week to a celebration never before witnessed. Huge signs of leading candidates to presidency have replaced posters of martyrs and Intifada graffiti. Local newspapers are also full of advertisements with headlines like: “Ending the occupation”, “Security for the citizen”, “Reform and development” (Mahmoud Abbas). Or Tayseer Khaled’s — the candidate for change — “No peace without Jerusalem which is the jewel of the nation and the root of our existence”. The candidate of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine even advertises his e-mail and website: www.vote-tayseer.com. Continue Reading »

I start this day with a previously arranged meeting with the former Jordanian foreign minister Marwan Muasher who is now deputy prime minister and minister for administrative affairs. He welcomes me in his huge office in the prime ministry and I can’t help but ask him if in fact he agrees with the description that his ministry is a super ministry as the head of the EU in Jordan describes it. Continue Reading »

Midway through an exclusive interview I had with Yasser Arafat in Tunis shortly before his return to Palestine, a year or so after the signing of the Oslo accords, I asked him to comment on some of the PLO factions wanting to become a political party. Continue Reading »

Everyone in the Middle East is crossing their fingers these days, hoping that regional and international leaders will not blow yet another opportunity for Arab-Israeli peace. The role of Palestinian and Israeli leaders is clearly an important factor in moving the peace process ahead, but let there be no mistake about it: The crucial factor is 6,000 miles away from Jerusalem, in Washington. Continue Reading »

This is the BBC from London, Voice of America from Washington, Deutsche Welle from Germany, Monte Carlo Radio from France. According to Reuters, AP wire service, UPI news. This is CNN. You are watching the Disney Channel, Hollywood channel, History Channel. Tonight’s feature is The Terminator. Follow the latest episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, Dallas, Friends, The Practice, NYPD Blue, Law and Order. Continue Reading »

Tuesday November 30th   2004

This week was scary and hard on the road. It began when I made a visit to some relatives who live in the old city of Ramallah. I had gone to deliver a package for them from Jordan and to pick up a package intended for a Jerusalem family who they can’t deliver because they  are not allowed into the city which has been annexed by Israel and therefore according to Israeli law Palestinians living outside the city are not allowed to visit it unless they have a permit (which is hard to obtain). Continue Reading »