Three Views: Obama's Visit to Israel
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Palestinian children during a visit to the Church of the Nativity in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, March 22, 2013. (ATEF SAFADI-POOL/GETTY IMAGES)
Grave Threats to the Middle East
Lebanese Kurds wave the Kurdish flag and a flag picturing Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan during Persian New Year, or Noruz, celebrations in Beirut, March 21, 2013. (JOSEPH EID/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
To the Victor, the Spoils
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lipid (c) with former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who resigned his position after being indicted on charges of fraud and breach of trust, at the Feb. 5 swearing in of the 19th Knesset. (URIEL SINAI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Getting the Words Right: Israel Isn’t Occupying Palestine—It’s Conquered It
Israeli soldiers take pictures of each other in front of Israel’s illegal apartheid wall near the Qalandia checkpoint outside Ramallah, March 30, 2013. Israeli troops earlier had clashed with Palestinian demonstrators commemorating the 37th anniversary of “Land Day.” (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
The Cyrus Cylinder—Often Referred to as The “First Bill of Human Rights”
Clay, Babylon, Mesopotamia, after 539 BCE D x H: 7.8-10 x 21.9-22.8 cm British Museum, London, ME 90920 Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum
Two Views: King Pyrrhus and the War on Iraq
Prosthetic legs for wounded American soldiers at the Center for Intrepid rehabilitation gym at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, Aug. 7, 2012. (JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES)
January/February 2008 Postcard
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Cut and paste html (for emailing your Sen. or Rep.:
DEAR SENATOR:
I urge you to encourage both Israelis and Palestinians to take real steps toward establishing a just and lasting agreement leading to peace in Palestine and Israel. Besides demanding a halt to acts of Palestinian violence, you should also be demanding an end to Israel’s attacks on the occupied territories and the siege of Gaza Strip, which has brought misery to more than a million Palestinians. Israel must implement a freeze on construction of Jewish settlements, which continues unabated and expropriates more and more Palestinian land every day. I also urge you to demand the release of the more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, most of whom have been neither convicted nor tried. Why should my tax dollars unconditionally support actions by Israel that work against peace? It’s time for you to encourage Israel and Palestine to take serious steps along the road map to ensure a genuine and just peace in the region.
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For a peace agreement to succeed by the end of 2008, each side must address core issues: borders, water, settlements, refugees, Jerusalem, and prisoners. (Cartoon by Khalil Bendib).
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IN THE WAKE of November’s Annapolis meeting between Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and Ehud Olmert, prime minister of Israel, the world is now waiting for real actions and results from all sides.
At the meeting, the leaders agreed to reach a settlement by the end of 2008. This isn’t the first time a deadline for peace has been created. In order for a peace agreement to succeed this time, each side must genuinely address the core issues that have never been fairly tackled. These issues include Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem, a just settlement of the claims of Palestinian refugees, the release of prisoners, water rights, and an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip—all of which, when justly settled, should bring about a final two-state solution that will allow both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace and dignity.
