Ali Abunimah: Outside powers arm and train militias to take on Hamas

The fighting between Hamas and Fatah has calmed down for the time being. Deadly clashes between the two rival political factions led Fatah fighters to flee to Israel for protection. One hundred and fifty Fatah fighters were relocated to the West Bank by Israel. In an editorial The Lebanese, The Daily Star stated that Hamas and Fatah are a bigger threat to Palestinians than Israel. Executive Director of The Electronic Intifada Ali Abunimah believes that outside forces have also contributed to the instability in the region.

Ali Hasan Abunimah (Arabic: علي حسن ابو نعمه‎)(b. December 29, 1971) is an American Journalist and co-founder of Electronic Intifada, a not-for-profit, independent online publication about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Born in Washington D.C., he spent his early years in the U.K. and Belgium before returning to the United States to attend college. His mother is originally from the village of Lifta, now in Israel, but became a refugee in the 1948 Palestinian exodus. His father is from the village of Battir, now in the West Bank, and is a former Jordanian diplomat who served as ambassador to the United Nations. Abunimah is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago and is a frequent speaker and commentator on the Middle East, contributing regularly to the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times among other publications. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. He has also served as the Vice-President on the Board of Directors of the Arab American Action Network. He is author of the book "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict", which proposes a different alternative: to revive the idea of one state shared by two peoples.



Source: The REAL News
Date: August 5, 2008