Conflict Blotter

Israel is stepping up its military offensive in the Gaza Strip and Defense Minister Ehud Barak is warning that more is yet to come. “We are getting closer to carrying out a widespread operation in Gaza,” Barak told Israel’s Army Radio Wednesday, the Labor Party leader’s 100th day as defense minister.
As Barak readies an assault […]

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Though it seems a bit premature, there’s been an uptick this week in speculation about who will succeed President Abbas. Abbas’ term isn’t up for another 18 months and early elections are off the table, but a failed November peace conference could change all that.
Marwan Barghouti is of course one of the names most often […]

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Palestinian PM Salam Fayad presented his new governing program yesterday at a cabinet meeting in Ramallah, which notably made no mention of armed resistance for the first time in the history of Palestinian governing programs. Both the Fatah charter and Abbas’ December 2004 platform mentioned armed struggle as a legitimate.
In response, the Popular Resistance Committees […]

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Here’s the latest example of the politicization of pork in Israel:
The Netanya City Council approved a bylaw prohibiting the sale of pork in the city on Tuesday. Those opposing the law called it “religious coercion and violation of the dominant status-quo in the city”.
Council Member Adir Benyamini, who also opposed the law, said, “The supporters […]

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I spoke with a new minister in Abbas’ emergency government of technocrats yesterday. Transportation Minister Mashhour Abu Daka is a balding and bespectacled mechanical engineer with a PhD from the Imperial College in London. Like most of the newly appointed government in Ramallah he is apolitical and little known to most Palestinians.
The thrust of […]

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