The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East (Third Edition) by David Hirst. Pub: Nation Books, New York, 2003. Pp: 626. Pbk: US$17.95.
Dozens of Israeli tanks, backed by helicopter-gunships and hundreds of armoured vehicles, launched a pre-dawn incursion into the Palestinian city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on April 29...
Looking around, it was difficult for me to see any cause for concern. The stony hill-country of Jebel-Amil in South Lebanon seems an idyllic place; most of the flat-roofed houses have olives, figs and almonds, or at least grapes, growing on trellises over their yards.
Israel’s chief rabbi, Israel Lau, has been leading an international campaign for the release of 13 Jews arrested for spying in Iran. The case of the 13 Iranian Jews came to light last month when Tehran announced that they are to be tried after an intensive four-month investigation.
One of the most enduring myths of the contemporary era is the image of the Zionist State of Israel as a beleaguered entity. The presence of ‘Arab hordes’ surrounding ‘tiny Israel’ is constantly peddled and easily accepted by guilt-ridden governments in the west
If the Qana massacre of April 18, 1996 was a tragic ‘mistake’, have the Zionists made any effort not to repeat such mistakes? Their three-year record shows that the Zionists have continued to kill innocent civilians.
Amid the drum-beating in western capitals as well as some Muslim capitals on the fiftieth anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights, Israel was busy doing what it does best: killing and maiming Palestinians.
The Zionist occupation forces have imposed a strict curfew on the southern part of the West Bank town of Hebron. The complete blockade of the city is part of the Zionists’ collective punishment to inflict suffering on 400,000 Palestinian residents while the gun-toting Zionist settlers prowl the streets freely.
