Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Oraib Al-Rantawi
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Iran, Israel and Foreign Minister Zarif
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif used French magazine Le Point to challenge the world to find a specific statement made by an Iranian official threatening or vowing to eliminate and destroy Israel. He gave a new reading of the statements and fatwas (opinions) of the first Supreme Leader...
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Will the Trump administration make occupied Golan part of ‘deal of the century’?
Over the past seven years, the extreme right-wing Israeli government has sought to exploit the Syrian crisis in order to legalise its annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights (occupied on 14 November 1981). Its diplomacy and lobbying efforts continued in Washington and international capitals to gain recognition by...
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Will Trump leave the White House before Tehran surrenders?
The second set of US sanctions against Iran just came into force. These sanctions mainly target two strategic sectors: energy and banking. Washington’s wants to “zero” Iran’s oil exports and cut Tehran’s ties to the global banking system called Swift. However, there are severe doubts about the ability of...
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What got the Palestinian President angry?
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seemed angry during the opening session of the 30th PLO Central Council, mainly at representatives of factions and independent figures who decided not to attend the session. We are not talking about the Hamas and Jihad movements as they are not even represented in the PLO’s...
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Stop limiting criticism of Israel to 'the Netanyahu government'
The Labour Party conference marked a watershed moment for the Palestine solidarity movement in the UK. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which distributed hundreds of flags that day, noted that it was the first time in living memory there was a debate on Palestine at a Labour Party conference....
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Netanyahu in Muscat: Is the initiative worth the risk?
What prompted the Sultanate of Oman to receive the Israeli Prime Minister at this particular time? Three hypotheses were developed in response to this question and as an attempt to explain the unusual Omani move, unfamiliar with Oman’s foreign policy. First, the strongest and least promoted hypothesis is that...
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No war between America and Iran, but no peace either
By launching a series of medium-range ballistic missiles towards targets close to areas under American control in eastern Syria, Iran is approaching the “American red lines” without actually crossing them. This can only be seen as an escalation of Iranian “reactions” to Washington’s “actions” against it since it decided...
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Lebanon, Palestine, and the controversial relationship between the ‘authority’ and ‘resistance’
The Lebanese and Palestinian experiences show the difficulty, if not impossibility, of combining the “authority” and the “resistance”. Each one of these “institutions”, so to speak, has its own different logic and tools. They each have their own incompatible, not to say “contradictory”, considerations and calculations, and the “best...
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Oman mediation and Iran’s return to the diplomatic path
The flow of American statements confirming its desire for unconditional dialogue with Iran hasn’t stopped. The president and his senior aides haven’t stopped talking about their desire and willingness to immediately start new negotiations with the Iranian leadership regarding the nuclear and missile programmes and Iran’s regional role, unconditionally,...
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The Helsinki irony: When Trump and Assad both win
The “shameful” and “weak” performance of US President Donald Trump at the Helsinki Summit dominated news reports, coverage, and reactions during and after the summit. We actually only know a little bit about what happened at the “core” of the discussions regarding the issues listed on the agenda. If...
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Is Abbas waiting for a ladder to climb down from the tree?
After returning from its latest tour of the region the American team, with its peace process and deal of the century, is showing exceptional interest in the need to “lure” the Palestinians back to the negotiating table and break the decision made by the Palestinian leadership to stop all...
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On the fire that ruined Iraq’s elections
The fire that broke out in the ballot box storage in Baghdad did not only devour the ballot boxes, but it also undermined the credibility and integrity of the Iraqi elections and the credibility of the ongoing political process in the country. This country is currently on the verge...
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America’s military presence in Syria and its priorities
The US Secretary of Defence, General James Mattis, has linked his country’s withdrawal from Syria to a comprehensive solution to the eight-year-old crisis. This means that America is refusing to commit to a timetable for a troop withdrawal, which is something Donald Trump has been talking about and promising...
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The Arab Spring is not yet dead
We did not take the analyses and predictions that mourned the early death of the Arab Spring wave with its successive revolutions and uprisings that broke out in Tunisia eight years ago seriously. We have always opposed and refuted the slander and defamation directed at this revolutionary, reformist wave,...
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A message to President Mahmoud Abbas
I would like to first congratulate you, your people, and myself on your safety and recovery from the health problems that ailed you recently. I would like to take this opportunity to give you some ideas that I firmly believe came into the minds, hearts, and conscience of every...
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Has Washington decided to look for an alternative to Abbas?
The United States has been contacting Palestinian figures from the West Bank and Jerusalem after the Palestinian leadership made a decision to stop contacts related to the peace process with Washington; a step that came in response to Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and...
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The Arab pressure on the Palestinian leadership
Palestinian news items, or leaks, report that Arab leaders are putting immense pressure on the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to resume negotiations and restore security coordination, at the highest level, with Israel. In public statements, leaders are linking the resumption of negotiations with the two-state solution and the...
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From criminalising normalisation to criminalising a boycott of Israel
Economic, trade and cultural normalisation of relations with Israel, let alone political normalisation and security cooperation, has always been criminalised by the Arab states. However, this did not prevent Arab capitals and individuals from sneaking under the radar and establishing relations and communication with the racist, occupation state. This...
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The 100-year war is not over yet
No one knows Israel’s schemes, games, lies and manoeuvres better than the Palestinians. Their experience was moulded after over 100 years of confrontation with the Zionist organisations, gangs, state and settlers. No one is capable of producing creative initiatives and forms of struggle that adapts to every new situation...
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Qatar’s options
Qatar does not have much room to manoeuvre in the wake of the blockade being imposed upon it; the wave that threatens to engulf the small Gulf State is big and strong. Furthermore, the polarisation in the region no longer allows for the usual Gulf way of making-up by...
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The Freedom and Dignity hunger strike completes its first month
While the Palestinian Nakba enters its 70th year tomorrow, the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike will finish its first month, after all the Israeli attempts to break the national prisoner movement’s will and fragment it failed. They have tried to spread lies about its leaders, using dirty means and tools...
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Questions about the southern front and the ‘safe zone’
There are a number of indicators on the horizon of the southern front which drive us to believe that they will move from the stage of traveling skirmishes to the phase of major confrontations. They may even reach the point of resolving the terrorist organisations, in all their names,...
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Washington and the 2+4 allies
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article that spoke of America’s intention to establish a new regional alliance that would include four Arab countries alongside Israel and the United States. The goal of the alliance, which will resemble NATO in some ways, is to counter the threat that...
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The art of making a leader: Fayyad as a model
Whenever the topic of the Palestinian Authority arises, few people talk about the institution itself, or the PLO or its President. The main topic for discussion is Salam Fayyad and his “genius” attempt to build the institutions of state while under Israeli occupation but with a view to ending...