By Dr. Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, a US-based AMW member and chair of the media committee of The Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

January 31, 2004

On Wednesday Israeli occupation forces killed eight (some reports say 13) Palestinians in an assault on Hay AzZaytouna (Olive tree Neighborhood) in Gaza. Among those killed were three teenagers: Sami Badawi (16), Akram AbuAjami (17), and Sameh Toteh (16). Like many other such assaults, the mainstream media in the US ignored this event or made cursory mention of "operations". No mainstream newspaper mentioned their names let alone describe this as terrorism. The next day a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 10 Israelis. These and other attacks inside Israel are described in detail and the media never shied from using the labels of massacres and terrorism in those instances. The net result is that Israeli lives and deaths become valued while Palestinian lives and deaths are diminished or erased from our conscience.

By Tammuz Tabriz, a member of Arab Media Watch's executive committee.

January 29, 2004

Suicide bombing is terrorism. Terrorism is wrong. End of discussion. This is how some commentators and politicians would like to deal with the thorny issue of people who prefer gruesome self-combustion to a life of misery and despair.

By Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah
January 28, 2004

The Israeli army has destroyed hundreds of thousands of Palestinian olive and citrus trees throughout the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent years. Yet in a startling admission, a staffer at the Jewish National Fund for Israel (JNF) has written that, "it is against Jewish halachic law to uproot fruit bearing trees."

More than three years into the intifada, the Palestinian situation seems worse than ever: the weekly death toll, the poverty and now the wall. So has the uprising failed? And how can suicide bombings ever be justified? Seumas Milne had exclusive access to leaders across the political spectrum - from president Yasser Arafat in his devastated compound to the underground strategists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He found an unprecedented willingness to compromise - but a growing belief that the wall will scupper the best ever hope for peace.

January 24, 2004
The Guardian

By Hasan Abu Nimah, former ambassador and permanent representative of Jordan at the UN.

January 22, 2004
Electronic Intifada

Talk of ridding the Middle East of "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) has been heard for years, but no efforts have been made to bring this closer. Whenever Arab states raised the issue, for example at the United Nations, instantly doubt would be cast on their motives, and their efforts would be perceived as a veiled attempt to point fingers at Israel, which is known to have huge arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Washington's plan to transfer power without a direct vote is a fraud, writes Jonathan Steele.

January 19, 2004
The Guardian

By Patrick Cockburn
January 19, 2004
The Independent

The suicide bomb in a white pick-up truck which exploded at the entrance to the heavily guarded headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad yesterday showed how little the capture of Saddam Hussein last month has affected the level of violence in Iraq.

GCHQ worker Katharine Gun faces jail for exposing American corruption in the run-up to war on Saddam. Now her celebrity supporters insist it is Bush and Blair who should be in the dock. Martin Bright reports.

January 18, 2004
The Observer